November 14, 2025 • 31 mins
When a failed anniversary trip left Gar Russell alone in a camper, he decided to turn disappointment into opportunity by listing the RV on Craigslist. That single choice ignited what would become Fireside RV Rental, a nationwide franchise with 70+ locations. In this episode, Gar shares how he built an empire from scratch, navigated bankruptcy, and discovered the freedom of mobile living while raising a family full-time in an RV. His story is about resilience, systems, and the power of persistence—offering inspiration and practical tools for truckers, entrepreneurs, and anyone searching for their next big step.
Key Takeaways:
✅ Turning setbacks into opportunity – How a ruined camping trip sparked a multimillion-dollar RV rental business.
✅ "All work works" mindset – Why every effort leads to progress, either through success or valuable lessons.
✅ Living the mobile lifestyle – Insights from five years of full-time RV living with a family while scaling a business.
✅ From bankruptcy to breakthrough – Gar’s honest account of failure, recovery, and building sustainable success.
✅ Smart systems & leadership – Documenting processes, outsourcing weaknesses, and leveraging AI to run a business remotely.
✅ Legacy over delegation – Moving from just assigning tasks to building meaningful, lasting relationships with teams.
✅ Blueprint for truckers & entrepreneurs – How to explore side hustles, passive income, and business ownership while on the road.
✅ Breakdowns before breakthroughs – Why the hardest moments often spark the greatest clarity and growth.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to another episode of that's
Delivered.
I'm your host, Trucking Ray,and today we have a special
guest with us.
Today, it's a show that bringsa fresh perspective from the
road, one that intersectsclosely with the trucking life.
I'm joined today by a specialguest, Gar Russell, a founder of
Fireside RV Rental.
He spent years living full-timein an RV with his family, while
(00:23):
running and scaling a nationalRV rental franchise.
His story is that of freedom,the challenges and lessons that
resonate with everyone who livestheir life by the mile, From
business setbacks, includingbankruptcy, to rebuilding.
Far more than just grit andclarity.
Far more than just grit andclarity.
(00:43):
Gar's journey is packed withinsights about leadership,
family and staying steadythrough the change, Whether
you're an owner-operator ordreaming of a side income or
just needing a reminder thattough roads can still lead
somewhere good.
This one's for you, somewheregood.
(01:08):
And this one's for you, Gar.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for giving ussome of your time and talking
about your experience with lifeand being on the show with us
here today.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Hey man, I'm blessed, I'm happy to come on and talk
with you.
I love that intro.
I was like I had my headbobbing there.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
That's awesome.
Good, I'm glad I can get thingscorrect.
Sometimes you know I get thingsright.
So, yeah, I want to make sureeverybody gets to know your
story and also share the wordsof encouragement for a lot of
people out there.
They're looking at hard timesand you've seen them, so tell us
a little about yourself.
How did the RV life even beginor even play a factor for your
(01:42):
family, and what kind of shiftdid it bring for you every day
in your life?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, so our RV adventure started our 10 year
wedding anniversary.
I bought my wife a camper andwe lived in Michigan at the time
.
I brought it out to Grand Haven, michigan, set it up there at
the campground and, uh, shewasn't really digging it.
She was, uh, she was sevenmonths pregnant with number four
(02:09):
.
It was the middle of July.
She was hot, miserable, youknow, in her defense, chasing a
toddler around.
And uh, she actually was likeyou know what?
I'm going home, I'm hot, I'mmiserable, I'm pregnant.
Uh, this ain't no fun, you know.
Thanks for the camper.
But and uh, so there I sat, Iloved it.
In my mind's eye, you know, Ilike to picture myself sitting
(02:32):
by a campfire and I'm feelingall bad for myself, so I'm going
to make myself a marshmallow.
And that just fell under thefire too.
You know, life was just fallingapart for me.
But uh, so I went and actually,you know, I was an entrepreneur
.
I am an entrepreneur, I hadsome real estate and I thought
you know, I'm going to rent thisthing out.
(02:52):
I'm going to put it onCraigslist, see if somebody
wants to rent it, you know.
And man, sure enough, within acouple hours I'm getting
messages People want to rent mycamper.
So that's, that's how the RVrental business started.
And then, you know, fastforward a little bit to make my
so my wife don't sound like avillain there she had our baby,
(03:13):
you know, and life was all goodand we ended up, you know, using
the RV as well and we actuallyended up full-time RVing for
five years.
So we're, we definitely lovethe RV lifestyle, but out of
that little painful moment there, that's how this company was
born.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, it's something how your perspective can change,
uh, in the blink of an eye withyou know the right
circumstances and you got.
You know you made lemons intolemonade.
I mean that's beautiful, uh,and then you also got to share
that time with your wife.
Um, that's some beautiful yearsbeing able to do that, but you
maximized it right.
So for now those are in thetrucking.
(03:50):
We know what life's like on theroad life in a vehicle.
It kind of parallels, you know,being in the RV, lifestyle life
on the road.
What was that like for you guys?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, we had a blast, man, our first time we hit the
road.
It was for just a couple months.
I wanted to get away for thewinter a little bit and yeah, we
had a great time.
It was my wife and I, our fourkids and my mother-in-law we
brought, and it was good.
And that next winter came and Ithought, man, I want to go
(04:23):
longer and longer and we just,we loved it.
You know, and uh, we would pullinto truck stops at night.
You know, on our travels ifwe're trying to get from one
place to the next, tuck inbetween a couple semis, fire up
the generator, go to sleep.
You know, and uh, we just had ablast.
It's we, we.
Two years ago we got back intoa house.
(04:45):
But we always say, man, onceour older two are, you know, out
doing their thing, we'll getright back into an RV and hit
the road again.
It's just such a blessing, it'sso much fun.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
You got your eye on one.
What's your?
What you looking at If you'replanning ahead?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
You.
No, we kind of go back andforth.
Part of us thinks, okay, we'llgo to a fifth wheel this time,
which we've had a fifth wheelbefore, and we'll do a toy
hauler because we can open theback, throw, you know, bikes and
this and that in there.
But then another part of methere's this Berkshire 45 foot,
you know class A diesel too.
(05:20):
That you know, I almost boughtduring COVID man, I'm glad I
didn't.
That was a 550 000 rv.
That probably wouldn't havebeen the best investment.
But well, yeah, we've kind ofgone back and forth the pros and
cons.
Right, because you, well, youknow how it is, you're trucking.
Right, when you get somewhereit's like you're there and
you're not just gonna drive thesemi and all just stop at a
(05:40):
mcdonald's.
Everything is very likecalculated and premeditated.
Right, because you got this bigold rig.
And so we thought, well, if wedo a fifth wheel with a truck,
we can unhook.
And then, you know, drive tothe mountains, this and that.
So I don't know, we'll see, younever know.
With me it's always anadventure.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Keep it open yeah.
So let's talk about this.
How did Fireside RV rental getits start and how did you make
that grow and do where it isnationwide that part of it
(06:25):
that's inside of me just kind ofkicked in.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I thought, all right, I've got real estate.
I manage my own real estate.
I'm renting my RV.
I've got time with my.
I also own a credit counselingbusiness.
I've got time.
I can, you know, deliver thecameras and stuff.
I'm going to see if my buddywants me to rent his too.
I'll tell him, hey, I'll rentyours for you as well, but I get
half the money.
And I asked my buddy he's like,yeah, that sounds good, go
ahead, do it.
It's just sitting there, I'monly using it two or three times
(06:47):
a year.
And then I asked my other buddyand he's like, yeah, that's
cool.
And then I asked mysister-in-law and she's like, no
, that's not cool.
Like not letting somebody sleepin the bed of my camper, that's
a horrible idea.
Where'd you come up with that,you know?
And I thought, all right, well,hey, I'm two for three right
now.
I think I'm onto something.
(07:11):
And so kind of one thing justled to the next.
You know, I started gettinginvolved in some Facebook
communities of people that wererenting their RVs and right
around that time there was somepeer-to-peer platforms just like
you have Airbnb and Turo, youknow for renting your house and
your car.
There were some peer-to-peerplatforms coming up called RV
Share, outdoorsy, and so I gotin some Facebook groups others
that were doing it.
I started just adding value andsharing what I was doing and I
(07:33):
had some guy in the UpperPeninsula of Michigan say, hey,
it sounds like you really knowwhat you're doing.
How about I start a locationfor you up here?
Because you know, I branded itand logo and all that kind of
stuff.
I'm like, yeah, all right.
Well, yeah, I'll, kind ofyou'll be my Guinea pig, you
know.
And then he's like, yeah, let'sdo it.
So we did it and several monthslater I thought, all right, I
got like a little business in abox here now.
(07:54):
And then, uh, I threw a videoout there about hey, you know,
come, come on to location for me.
And I think I charged like $995, you know for the location and
then a couple more and I'm like,all right, now I've got some
systems, processes, I hired myfirst employee and then I went
(08:14):
to $5,000, you know.
And then I'm going to do A, band C for you, you know, fast
forward.
And now it's a hey, we're at,we're a FTC regulated franchise.
Now it's hey, we're anFTC-regulated franchise,
federally trademarked, and it's35K.
Here we are.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
We have about 70 locations across the country now
.
Wow, that's amazing.
That's a real, true-lifeAmerican dream success story.
So how nice, and thank you forsharing it with us.
I mean, I know it probablywasn't always easy.
There's some ups and downs, I'msure with everything, a lot of
drivers out there thought aboutowning their own equipment or
building something forthemselves on the side.
(08:53):
What advice would you give themfor someone who's trying to
start a business while they'reworking full time, probably on
the road?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah, and we've had some truckers that have have
started fireside franchises.
And the best piece of advice Ilove to give for my journey as
an entrepreneur is all workworks, so you take an action,
you try something.
It's either going to work foryou, so it's working, or it's
(09:24):
going to work on you, so it'sworking.
All work works, so you may trysomething in it.
You don't necessarily get theresult that you thought you
would, but you learn somethingthat worked, or you know.
The thing about entrepreneurship, right, is, you've got this bug
inside of you.
You feel like you're gifted asan entrepreneur and you want to
start a business.
Well, you, you feel like you'regifted as an entrepreneur and
you want to start a business.
(09:45):
Well, that doesn't necessarilymean you're gifted in all the
areas of a business, right,because there's sales,
operations, marketing,accounting, human resources,
there's all these differentareas.
So you're going to figure outwhat your strong suit is Like.
One thing I learned is theaccounting, bookkeeping, numbers
(10:05):
.
That's not my strong suit, butthat doesn't necessarily mean,
again, that you're not gifted asan entrepreneur.
You just learned the area thatyou need to outsource.
So my piece of advice to youwould be don't fight that.
Don't say, well, I'm going tolearn accounting, I'm going to
this and that.
No, work your strength and thenhire your weakness, because, at
(10:29):
the end of the day, it'sactually going to help you move
forward that much faster.
To do that instead of trying tobe all things you know.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
You can be a C student, they say, but surround
yourself with a lot of Astudents so you get to pick
people you know.
Hey, help me out here, I needyour help.
So that's great.
I mean also the lows.
There's got to be some thingsthat, like you mentioned I think
you said that there's somebankruptcy.
You hit some hard times,especially when the business for
your home one of the, I thinkit says when your business and
(11:03):
your home are under the samename.
So it'd be a little trickythere.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, there's definitely lots of.
You know, like I said, all workworks.
There's definitely so manypitfalls you hit as an
entrepreneur and if you study,you know successful
entrepreneurs, you'll see abankruptcy in their history
somewhere.
Potentially, you know, you'llsee some major setbacks.
But that's the thing aboutentrepreneurship is you have to
(11:30):
take that setback and say, okay,what did I learn?
And you use that for yourcomeback.
You know, and I'm sure there'speople listening to this right
now who are saying, yeah, I'vebeen there, like that's happened
, or or are saying, yeah, I havethat fear, that's why I'm not
starting a business, you know.
And two, that's one of thebeauties of, first of all,
(11:52):
staffing your weaknesses.
And second, you know, like afranchise.
You know and I'm notnecessarily saying this to
promote my franchise, I'm justsaying there's people out there
who have the systems and theprocesses and all those things
in place.
So, if you, if you feel like,man, I really would love to sell
a product or I'd love to sell aservice or start a business,
(12:13):
you know, in a certain fashion,do some research, because you'll
probably find somebody who'salready doing it and they'll
probably have a coaching or amentoring program, like, unless
you're coming up with a brandnew invention.
That's you know, it's justtotally new.
If there's a desire inside ofyou for a certain kind of
(12:34):
business, there's probablysomeone out there that's already
doing it, that can teach you,that can mentor you, that can
coach you.
So be open to that.
It's you know, entrepreneurshipis lonely many times, and it
shouldn't be.
You know, we think we have todo it all on our own, but no,
there's people, there'scommunities, there's coachings,
there's programs and plug intothose.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Absolutely.
I think that's great.
Many times we look at ourselvesand we say, man, I can't do
that, but you can always leanupon someone else that could
help you get that accomplished.
So great words of advice, andalso not being shy about talking
about the pitfalls.
I mean people like to know, hey, this guy, is he telling me the
whole truth?
And so that comes with the goodand the bad.
(13:20):
You got to accept them both.
So, yeah, that's great Greatnews.
So when you're mobile,structure is everything.
Truckers know this because theyget their bags prepared, they
get the truck set up.
What habits or systems did youput in place to help you stay
disciplined while running abusiness from an RV?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, you're right, habits is a key right there and
yeah, and systems and processes.
And you know, the first thingthat you need to do if you're
going to launch a business isyou've got to start documenting
and documenting your journey,documenting what you're doing,
because then, once you havethings documented, now you can
(14:02):
duplicate, Now you can bringsomeone in to do a specific role
for you.
So, as you're documenting, asyou're learning and this is also
a cool hack when it comes tobusinesses as you're doing this,
document your journey as wellin video, because down the road,
you can actually use that invideo, because down the road you
(14:23):
can actually use that.
You can use that to market, tomentor others, to encourage
others, and you can use that togo back on and encourage
yourself.
But, yeah, you've got todocument.
You've got to document what'sworking, what's not working,
because if you're not doing that, you could literally try
something that you tried sixmonths ago and you forgot.
You tried it because it's notdocumented.
You know it doesn't.
(14:44):
You don't have to be super um,you don't have to be super nerdy
, geeky to document.
You know you can literallyshoot a video, especially with
ai.
Now.
I mean, heck, you can take chatgpt and you can literally
create a custom GPT.
You can literally, like I can,go into my GuardGPT and it has
(15:05):
my books that I've written, ithas access to my videos, my
documentation, and I could go inthere and ask it questions and
it will pull out informationbased.
So, with AI being brought intothe equation now, it's so easy
to document and systematize andautomate things.
It really is.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I love that.
I like to email myself that wayit pops up, but then my problem
is trying to find it again, somaybe yours is better.
I like that.
Having that all together withthe AI platform Great advice.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, if you have that $20 a month membership.
I just stuck with chat GPT.
There's so many out there, butit it?
Yeah, it has that memory, soyou can go back and I love it
too.
With emails too is great.
What I'll do with emails isI'll put them in folders and
then I'll snooze things too.
So I'll have an email and youcan, you know, click the snooze
(15:58):
button.
It kind of looks like an alarmclock and I can put it out for a
week.
So then when it pops back intomy inbox, it's almost like a
task management system.
And then what I also like to dowith email too is I like to I
set up email accounts for all mykids.
My eight-year-old has an emailaccount and I'll email them
special moments in life, youknow, special things, memories,
(16:20):
pictures, all that kind of stuff.
So someday I'll give themaccess to that email account and
they'll have all thatdocumentation and those memories
and all that kind of stuff.
And it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Cool Dad, I like that .
Yeah, I did the same thing.
Uh, my daughter.
She's 18 now, so maybe she'lllook at it when um life slows
down a little bit.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So yeah, good for you , man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, so that's cool.
Um, so it works.
Yeah, um, she's like what's allthese emails that?
Yeah, so, um, now think aboutleadership.
You know it matters whetheryou're running a fleet, managing
dispatch or building a rentalnetwork.
How has your leadership styleinvolved over the years, the
early RV days to now?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You know it evolves from.
First, as a leader, you knowyou think your job is delegation
.
You know you do this, you dothat, and then you didn't do
this, you didn't do that.
But then you start to realize,as a leader, it's more about
serving your staff, to whereyou're mentoring them, you're
(17:26):
coaching them, you're helpingthem grow as a person, you're
investing in their life.
And then, when you're doingthat, you're getting on to.
The next phase is where you'reactually starting to build a
legacy.
You're starting actually tohave impact.
You're starting actually tohave impact.
And when you have impact onyour staff, on your customers,
that's when you have loyalty,that's when you have an employee
(17:50):
who's going to stay late to getsomething done without you even
asking, because they know thatyou care for them and they want
to care for you.
And so, yeah, leadership issuch a powerful thing and really
(18:10):
that term legacy leadership hasjust been floating around in my
mind about the last month, sixweeks, of leading in a way to
where, even if somebody leavesyour team, you've made an impact
on them and they're out attheir new job and they're
quoting you and they're sayingoh yeah, I learned this from Gar
, you know, and that's just sopowerful you literally are,
you're, you're causingtransformation inside of your
(18:34):
team, and that's just, that'spowerful man.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Absolutely.
Leadership can be misused andabused, but it also can be used
to motivate and inspire peoplein a beautiful way, not just for
what the leadership can get,but those relationships and
those bonds they can last for alifetime to use, and that we
(18:58):
don't want to mishandle it sovery well that you speak on that
and give encouragement to otherleaders out there as well.
Let's say, hey, you know itdoes matter.
You know what I do, it's notthat, it's just a parking orders
Right, so good job.
Do you think the RV rentalmodel could be a good side
business for a driver,especially for those with land
(19:21):
or seasonal home base?
What would you say?
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah, most definitely I do.
If you've got land, you can runa fireside, yeah, right on your
land.
Because basically what we do iswe're a management company,
right?
So we take people's RVs, wegroup them together, we bring
them into our possession andthen we rent them out for them
on their behalf.
And so if you have landinstantly right there, you're
earning revenue because you'recharging the owner for storage
(19:48):
of the RV when it's not beingrented.
But then the other side of ittoo is you know you've got to
have a team, because if you'reon the road and you've got a
rental, you know the RV is goingto need to be cleaned.
You're going to need someone todo a walkthrough of the RV.
Or if it's a travel trailer andthey want it delivered, you're
going to need someone to deliverit for you.
(20:10):
So if you're good at delegatingand managing people, you can
easily build a team.
And I usually recommend with anew franchise, you know, run it
yourself first.
And most of our franchisesthey're owner-operator,
husband-wife teams.
They love doing the businesstogether.
The kids are involved.
The husband's usually working onthe RVs too.
(20:30):
That's a billable item $125 to$145 an hour to work on an RV.
So there's multiple ways tomonetize it.
And then, yeah, once you'vecome in and you've learned the
business and you've built a team, then yeah, you can structure
it in a way where you're doingboth nice and you guys um how
(20:51):
they get help from you guys.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Is that more so from the, the franchise or um pattern
, or is it something else thatyou provide?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
yeah, so we're.
We give them all the systemsand the software and the
training and the coaching andmentoring and basically
everything they need to be upand running and to continue to
run.
We have a full corporatesupport team.
We've got about I don't know, Ihaven't counted recently, but
maybe six or eight full-timestaff that is there to support
(21:21):
the franchisees with differentthings.
We do a yearly retreat, we dowhat we call open office hours,
where you can click in severaltimes throughout the week, and
we have mentorings and coachings.
So that's the beauty of afranchise model is you're
literally purchasing into aproven system, so you're never
like out there wondering, okay,what's next or what do I do in
(21:44):
this situation.
And then, too, it's a wholecommunity right, we've got 70
locations around the country,and so we're all doing this
together, we're all encouragingeach other together in this
business.
Most of the franchises in ourcommunity are Christians,
christian entrepreneurs, doingthis together.
So it's good to know that youhave a community of like-minded
(22:07):
people that are doing thisbusiness together.
It's encouraging.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
It is.
That's very encouraging.
Thank you for letting us knowthat too Many people they are
concerned about what we aredoing business with, what's
going on behind the scenes,what's the future look like, so
that stability is good to putout there as well.
You can help thousands offamilies take trips, but for us
you know road warriors out here,truckers it's not always about
(22:34):
vacation, it's about making aliving.
So still, I bet there's a storyor two that reminded you of why
road life matters.
Do you have any success storiesthat you can share from your
experiences?
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, on road life with the family when we were
traveling, yeah, I mean tons ofbeautiful memories for sure.
I remember, actually, when Iwas young, I would ride with my
grandpa in his semi and go dosome trips and it just yeah,
there's just something aboutdoing that together and building
those memories, which is greatand so, uh, it's it's, it's
(23:08):
definitely, it's definitely, uh,something that we look forward
to doing again Once we get acouple of kids out of the house,
get back on the road and makingthose memories together.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Nice, yeah, so at time together, it's well spent
making great memories together.
That's awesome.
So what's one of the biggestmyths you heard from living a
dream on the road and what is itreality kind of really like for
it?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
One of the biggest myths as far as life on the road
.
You know, I don't know I'mtrying to think I don't know if,
as far as before we startedtraveling, I didn't necessarily
hear any myths or loss.
I mean, we hear more myths inregards to homeschooling.
You know, because we traveledand homeschooled the kids, you
know there's several myths wewould always hear about
(23:59):
homeschooling, like, oh, yourkids are going to be socially
awkward and this, and thatthey're going to be behind all
these things, these things.
But my kids are all extremelyextroverted and and uh and
people, people and uh and thatyou know fall behind and stuff
like that.
But that's none of that hasbeen the case, that's for sure
breaking those boundaries.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I love it as a family .
What about security and thingslike that?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
uh, maybe there's some concerns on some people's
minds as well oh security as faras life on the road yeah yeah,
you know, the first couplewinters that we hit the road I
would, I would bring a, uh,carry a gun with me, because I
was like I don't know what it'sgoing to be like, you know, and
(24:43):
and I don't even know if allstates, I don't know if I would
have gotten in trouble in somestates, I didn't even really
research it.
Like I had my concealed permit,you know, in Michigan, and then
I had my little gun safe that Ikept my handgun in, and so I
carried the first couple winterswe went, but man, um, we never
really ran into.
Actually, when we got home onewinter somebody was breaking
(25:07):
into our house as we werepulling back into our house, but
as far as on, the road you know, we've never really had
situations where we felt like,uh, unsafe, or anything like
that.
You know, we really didn't.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
That's good to hear Good feedback.
So for listeners out there umfacing burnout, debt, business
struggle, what's something thathelped you mentally reset and
keep pushing?
Speaker 2 (25:30):
business struggle.
What's something that helpedyou mentally reset and keep
pushing?
You know it's.
It was always, uh, in thosenegative times of yeah, you know
of, of, you know, tough timeswith the business finances,
different things like that itwas always just the hope that
things are are going to getbetter, you know.
And just pressing into God andjust remind, remembering all the
(25:50):
times where life got hard andGod brought us through, you know
, and just remembering thosetimes gives you that hope.
And you know, as you have thathope, then that just gives you
the faith that you need to justkeep pressing on.
And that's very common inentrepreneurship.
You know, to have those up anddowns and back and forth.
And well, what if this doesn'twork out?
What's that going to look like?
(26:14):
And it's just knowing that,even if something doesn't work
out, you've learned somethingand you take that into the next
adventure, you know.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
I like that Great, great advice.
So what's next for Fireside RVRental?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Do you see any new opportunities that could apply
to folks like in the truckingworld?
What would you say RVs is.
You know we call it wheelestate.
I write about that in my wheelestate storybook is it's a home
on wheels, you know.
So people rent RVs to gocamping, people rent RVs to go
to races or music festivals, orwe work with insurance companies
(27:04):
.
You know, if somebody'sdisplaced because of something
to do with their home, ifsomebody's displaced because of
something to do with their home,and so we just keep looking for
those opportunities to helppeople get outdoors and use real
estate.
And there's over 12 million RVssitting around the country
doing nothing most of the time.
So it's kind of sky's the limitas far as RVs sitting around
(27:26):
doing nothing, and then alsopeople that want to experience
the outdoors but don't have anRV.
So it really creates this greatopportunity.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I feel like you're talking to me there.
I got my RV sitting outsideright now.
Better go check in there, makesure everything's okay.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah, right, yeah, yeah, they sit around.
You know the tires start dry,rotting Next thing you know you
got some mice in there, this andthat.
And the cool thing too about anRV that's just sitting putting
it with fireside is now you getto depreciate it under IRS Tax
Code 178.
Same as you get to depreciateyour real estate investments.
So now it's a write-off tooffset your taxes and you also
(28:07):
get to write off the storage andinsurance and repairs.
And then, obviously too, youhave the earning potential of it
earning you money instead of itjust sitting around, you know.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Turn it into an asset versus a liability.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Exactly yeah, you turn that liability into an
asset.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Great, great job.
Help people with the businessmind.
It's not easy.
We're bombarded by social media, we're bombarded by stress of
life.
But to think about a way thatwe can actually provide for
ourselves a little more, alittle something extra.
For, like you said, if acamper's sitting outside not
doing anything most of the year,what can it do for you, right?
So here's the way to do itFireside.
(28:49):
Thank you for that advice.
I think it's great.
I think you got a great story.
I think you could keep onsharing that.
I think that people need tohear more of that.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yes, sir, you're very welcome, do you?
Speaker 1 (29:01):
have anything else you wanted to add before we go,
any words of wisdom or adviceyou'd like to give for people
out there that are listening?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
No, if there's any listeners out there that they're
looking to do something on theside entrepreneurial adventure
on top of what you're alreadydoing, I would just encourage
you to just try something.
It's very easy to have thesedifferent ideas and then the
next different idea, but you gotto just try something.
If it doesn't work, it doesn'twork.
(29:32):
But forward movement alwaysbrings clarity.
So try something, Take a stepforward and if it works, great.
If it doesn't work, you'velearned something.
And now when the next idea popsup, you take what you've
learned into that next idea.
And who knows?
You know you could have thenext big idea that people need
(29:53):
to solve a problem that exists.
You might be the solution tothat problem.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
All right, awesome, so check out FiresideRVRentalcom
.
Is that correct?
Yes sir, all right.
So, man Gar, I reallyappreciate the real talk that
you brought to the table here.
You know trucking NRV, the lifemay be a little different, but
on the inside it's pretty muchthe same.
So it's all about resilience,purpose, learning how to keep
(30:22):
moving forward, like you said,one step at a time.
And even when the plans changeyou can.
You can move with it.
So to the listeners out there,whether you're on mile 200 or
mile 2000, remember thatsometimes the biggest
breakthroughs come afterbreakdowns, and you can learn
about this by Gar's journey andhis franchise at
(30:42):
firesidervrentalcom.
So until next time, stay steady, stay sharp, keep on delivering
.
Welcome back to another episode of that's
Delivered.
I'm your host, Trucking Ray,and today we have a special
guest with us.
Today, it's a show that bringsa fresh perspective from the
road, one that intersectsclosely with the trucking life.
I'm joined today by a specialguest, Gar Russell, a founder of
Fireside RV Rental.
He spent years living full-timein an RV with his family, while
(00:23):
running and scaling a nationalRV rental franchise.
His story is that of freedom,the challenges and lessons that
resonate with everyone who livestheir life by the mile, From
business setbacks, includingbankruptcy, to rebuilding.
Far more than just grit andclarity.
Far more than just grit andclarity.
(00:43):
Gar's journey is packed withinsights about leadership,
family and staying steadythrough the change, Whether
you're an owner-operator ordreaming of a side income or
just needing a reminder thattough roads can still lead
somewhere good.
This one's for you, somewheregood.
(01:08):
And this one's for you, Gar.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for giving ussome of your time and talking
about your experience with lifeand being on the show with us
here today.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Hey man, I'm blessed, I'm happy to come on and talk
with you.
I love that intro.
I was like I had my headbobbing there.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
That's awesome.
Good, I'm glad I can get thingscorrect.
Sometimes you know I get thingsright.
So, yeah, I want to make sureeverybody gets to know your
story and also share the wordsof encouragement for a lot of
people out there.
They're looking at hard timesand you've seen them, so tell us
a little about yourself.
How did the RV life even beginor even play a factor for your
(01:42):
family, and what kind of shiftdid it bring for you every day
in your life?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, so our RV adventure started our 10 year
wedding anniversary.
I bought my wife a camper andwe lived in Michigan at the time
.
I brought it out to Grand Haven, michigan, set it up there at
the campground and, uh, shewasn't really digging it.
She was, uh, she was sevenmonths pregnant with number four
(02:09):
.
It was the middle of July.
She was hot, miserable, youknow, in her defense, chasing a
toddler around.
And uh, she actually was likeyou know what?
I'm going home, I'm hot, I'mmiserable, I'm pregnant.
Uh, this ain't no fun, you know.
Thanks for the camper.
But and uh, so there I sat, Iloved it.
In my mind's eye, you know, Ilike to picture myself sitting
(02:32):
by a campfire and I'm feelingall bad for myself, so I'm going
to make myself a marshmallow.
And that just fell under thefire too.
You know, life was just fallingapart for me.
But uh, so I went and actually,you know, I was an entrepreneur
.
I am an entrepreneur, I hadsome real estate and I thought
you know, I'm going to rent thisthing out.
(02:52):
I'm going to put it onCraigslist, see if somebody
wants to rent it, you know.
And man, sure enough, within acouple hours I'm getting
messages People want to rent mycamper.
So that's, that's how the RVrental business started.
And then, you know, fastforward a little bit to make my
so my wife don't sound like avillain there she had our baby,
(03:13):
you know, and life was all goodand we ended up, you know, using
the RV as well and we actuallyended up full-time RVing for
five years.
So we're, we definitely lovethe RV lifestyle, but out of
that little painful moment there, that's how this company was
born.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, it's something how your perspective can change,
uh, in the blink of an eye withyou know the right
circumstances and you got.
You know you made lemons intolemonade.
I mean that's beautiful, uh,and then you also got to share
that time with your wife.
Um, that's some beautiful yearsbeing able to do that, but you
maximized it right.
So for now those are in thetrucking.
(03:50):
We know what life's like on theroad life in a vehicle.
It kind of parallels, you know,being in the RV, lifestyle life
on the road.
What was that like for you guys?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, we had a blast, man, our first time we hit the
road.
It was for just a couple months.
I wanted to get away for thewinter a little bit and yeah, we
had a great time.
It was my wife and I, our fourkids and my mother-in-law we
brought, and it was good.
And that next winter came and Ithought, man, I want to go
(04:23):
longer and longer and we just,we loved it.
You know, and uh, we would pullinto truck stops at night.
You know, on our travels ifwe're trying to get from one
place to the next, tuck inbetween a couple semis, fire up
the generator, go to sleep.
You know, and uh, we just had ablast.
It's we, we.
Two years ago we got back intoa house.
(04:45):
But we always say, man, onceour older two are, you know, out
doing their thing, we'll getright back into an RV and hit
the road again.
It's just such a blessing, it'sso much fun.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
You got your eye on one.
What's your?
What you looking at If you'replanning ahead?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
You.
No, we kind of go back andforth.
Part of us thinks, okay, we'llgo to a fifth wheel this time,
which we've had a fifth wheelbefore, and we'll do a toy
hauler because we can open theback, throw, you know, bikes and
this and that in there.
But then another part of methere's this Berkshire 45 foot,
you know class A diesel too.
(05:20):
That you know, I almost boughtduring COVID man, I'm glad I
didn't.
That was a 550 000 rv.
That probably wouldn't havebeen the best investment.
But well, yeah, we've kind ofgone back and forth the pros and
cons.
Right, because you, well, youknow how it is, you're trucking.
Right, when you get somewhereit's like you're there and
you're not just gonna drive thesemi and all just stop at a
(05:40):
mcdonald's.
Everything is very likecalculated and premeditated.
Right, because you got this bigold rig.
And so we thought, well, if wedo a fifth wheel with a truck,
we can unhook.
And then, you know, drive tothe mountains, this and that.
So I don't know, we'll see, younever know.
With me it's always anadventure.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Keep it open yeah.
So let's talk about this.
How did Fireside RV rental getits start and how did you make
that grow and do where it isnationwide that part of it
(06:25):
that's inside of me just kind ofkicked in.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I thought, all right, I've got real estate.
I manage my own real estate.
I'm renting my RV.
I've got time with my.
I also own a credit counselingbusiness.
I've got time.
I can, you know, deliver thecameras and stuff.
I'm going to see if my buddywants me to rent his too.
I'll tell him, hey, I'll rentyours for you as well, but I get
half the money.
And I asked my buddy he's like,yeah, that sounds good, go
ahead, do it.
It's just sitting there, I'monly using it two or three times
(06:47):
a year.
And then I asked my other buddyand he's like, yeah, that's
cool.
And then I asked mysister-in-law and she's like, no
, that's not cool.
Like not letting somebody sleepin the bed of my camper, that's
a horrible idea.
Where'd you come up with that,you know?
And I thought, all right, well,hey, I'm two for three right
now.
I think I'm onto something.
(07:11):
And so kind of one thing justled to the next.
You know, I started gettinginvolved in some Facebook
communities of people that wererenting their RVs and right
around that time there was somepeer-to-peer platforms just like
you have Airbnb and Turo, youknow for renting your house and
your car.
There were some peer-to-peerplatforms coming up called RV
Share, outdoorsy, and so I gotin some Facebook groups others
that were doing it.
I started just adding value andsharing what I was doing and I
(07:33):
had some guy in the UpperPeninsula of Michigan say, hey,
it sounds like you really knowwhat you're doing.
How about I start a locationfor you up here?
Because you know, I branded itand logo and all that kind of
stuff.
I'm like, yeah, all right.
Well, yeah, I'll, kind ofyou'll be my Guinea pig, you
know.
And then he's like, yeah, let'sdo it.
So we did it and several monthslater I thought, all right, I
got like a little business in abox here now.
(07:54):
And then, uh, I threw a videoout there about hey, you know,
come, come on to location for me.
And I think I charged like $995, you know for the location and
then a couple more and I'm like,all right, now I've got some
systems, processes, I hired myfirst employee and then I went
(08:14):
to $5,000, you know.
And then I'm going to do A, band C for you, you know, fast
forward.
And now it's a hey, we're at,we're a FTC regulated franchise.
Now it's hey, we're anFTC-regulated franchise,
federally trademarked, and it's35K.
Here we are.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
We have about 70 locations across the country now
.
Wow, that's amazing.
That's a real, true-lifeAmerican dream success story.
So how nice, and thank you forsharing it with us.
I mean, I know it probablywasn't always easy.
There's some ups and downs, I'msure with everything, a lot of
drivers out there thought aboutowning their own equipment or
building something forthemselves on the side.
(08:53):
What advice would you give themfor someone who's trying to
start a business while they'reworking full time, probably on
the road?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah, and we've had some truckers that have have
started fireside franchises.
And the best piece of advice Ilove to give for my journey as
an entrepreneur is all workworks, so you take an action,
you try something.
It's either going to work foryou, so it's working, or it's
(09:24):
going to work on you, so it'sworking.
All work works, so you may trysomething in it.
You don't necessarily get theresult that you thought you
would, but you learn somethingthat worked, or you know.
The thing about entrepreneurship, right, is, you've got this bug
inside of you.
You feel like you're gifted asan entrepreneur and you want to
start a business.
Well, you, you feel like you'regifted as an entrepreneur and
you want to start a business.
(09:45):
Well, that doesn't necessarilymean you're gifted in all the
areas of a business, right,because there's sales,
operations, marketing,accounting, human resources,
there's all these differentareas.
So you're going to figure outwhat your strong suit is Like.
One thing I learned is theaccounting, bookkeeping, numbers
(10:05):
.
That's not my strong suit, butthat doesn't necessarily mean,
again, that you're not gifted asan entrepreneur.
You just learned the area thatyou need to outsource.
So my piece of advice to youwould be don't fight that.
Don't say, well, I'm going tolearn accounting, I'm going to
this and that.
No, work your strength and thenhire your weakness, because, at
(10:29):
the end of the day, it'sactually going to help you move
forward that much faster.
To do that instead of trying tobe all things you know.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
You can be a C student, they say, but surround
yourself with a lot of Astudents so you get to pick
people you know.
Hey, help me out here, I needyour help.
So that's great.
I mean also the lows.
There's got to be some thingsthat, like you mentioned I think
you said that there's somebankruptcy.
You hit some hard times,especially when the business for
your home one of the, I thinkit says when your business and
(11:03):
your home are under the samename.
So it'd be a little trickythere.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, there's definitely lots of.
You know, like I said, all workworks.
There's definitely so manypitfalls you hit as an
entrepreneur and if you study,you know successful
entrepreneurs, you'll see abankruptcy in their history
somewhere.
Potentially, you know, you'llsee some major setbacks.
But that's the thing aboutentrepreneurship is you have to
(11:30):
take that setback and say, okay,what did I learn?
And you use that for yourcomeback.
You know, and I'm sure there'speople listening to this right
now who are saying, yeah, I'vebeen there, like that's happened
, or or are saying, yeah, I havethat fear, that's why I'm not
starting a business, you know.
And two, that's one of thebeauties of, first of all,
(11:52):
staffing your weaknesses.
And second, you know, like afranchise.
You know and I'm notnecessarily saying this to
promote my franchise, I'm justsaying there's people out there
who have the systems and theprocesses and all those things
in place.
So, if you, if you feel like,man, I really would love to sell
a product or I'd love to sell aservice or start a business,
(12:13):
you know, in a certain fashion,do some research, because you'll
probably find somebody who'salready doing it and they'll
probably have a coaching or amentoring program, like, unless
you're coming up with a brandnew invention.
That's you know, it's justtotally new.
If there's a desire inside ofyou for a certain kind of
(12:34):
business, there's probablysomeone out there that's already
doing it, that can teach you,that can mentor you, that can
coach you.
So be open to that.
It's you know, entrepreneurshipis lonely many times, and it
shouldn't be.
You know, we think we have todo it all on our own, but no,
there's people, there'scommunities, there's coachings,
there's programs and plug intothose.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Absolutely.
I think that's great.
Many times we look at ourselvesand we say, man, I can't do
that, but you can always leanupon someone else that could
help you get that accomplished.
So great words of advice, andalso not being shy about talking
about the pitfalls.
I mean people like to know, hey, this guy, is he telling me the
whole truth?
And so that comes with the goodand the bad.
(13:20):
You got to accept them both.
So, yeah, that's great Greatnews.
So when you're mobile,structure is everything.
Truckers know this because theyget their bags prepared, they
get the truck set up.
What habits or systems did youput in place to help you stay
disciplined while running abusiness from an RV?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, you're right, habits is a key right there and
yeah, and systems and processes.
And you know, the first thingthat you need to do if you're
going to launch a business isyou've got to start documenting
and documenting your journey,documenting what you're doing,
because then, once you havethings documented, now you can
(14:02):
duplicate, Now you can bringsomeone in to do a specific role
for you.
So, as you're documenting, asyou're learning and this is also
a cool hack when it comes tobusinesses as you're doing this,
document your journey as wellin video, because down the road,
you can actually use that invideo, because down the road you
(14:23):
can actually use that.
You can use that to market, tomentor others, to encourage
others, and you can use that togo back on and encourage
yourself.
But, yeah, you've got todocument.
You've got to document what'sworking, what's not working,
because if you're not doing that, you could literally try
something that you tried sixmonths ago and you forgot.
You tried it because it's notdocumented.
You know it doesn't.
(14:44):
You don't have to be super um,you don't have to be super nerdy
, geeky to document.
You know you can literallyshoot a video, especially with
ai.
Now.
I mean, heck, you can take chatgpt and you can literally
create a custom GPT.
You can literally, like I can,go into my GuardGPT and it has
(15:05):
my books that I've written, ithas access to my videos, my
documentation, and I could go inthere and ask it questions and
it will pull out informationbased.
So, with AI being brought intothe equation now, it's so easy
to document and systematize andautomate things.
It really is.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I love that.
I like to email myself that wayit pops up, but then my problem
is trying to find it again, somaybe yours is better.
I like that.
Having that all together withthe AI platform Great advice.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, if you have that $20 a month membership.
I just stuck with chat GPT.
There's so many out there, butit it?
Yeah, it has that memory, soyou can go back and I love it
too.
With emails too is great.
What I'll do with emails isI'll put them in folders and
then I'll snooze things too.
So I'll have an email and youcan, you know, click the snooze
(15:58):
button.
It kind of looks like an alarmclock and I can put it out for a
week.
So then when it pops back intomy inbox, it's almost like a
task management system.
And then what I also like to dowith email too is I like to I
set up email accounts for all mykids.
My eight-year-old has an emailaccount and I'll email them
special moments in life, youknow, special things, memories,
(16:20):
pictures, all that kind of stuff.
So someday I'll give themaccess to that email account and
they'll have all thatdocumentation and those memories
and all that kind of stuff.
And it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Cool Dad, I like that .
Yeah, I did the same thing.
Uh, my daughter.
She's 18 now, so maybe she'lllook at it when um life slows
down a little bit.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So yeah, good for you , man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, so that's cool.
Um, so it works.
Yeah, um, she's like what's allthese emails that?
Yeah, so, um, now think aboutleadership.
You know it matters whetheryou're running a fleet, managing
dispatch or building a rentalnetwork.
How has your leadership styleinvolved over the years, the
early RV days to now?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You know it evolves from.
First, as a leader, you knowyou think your job is delegation
.
You know you do this, you dothat, and then you didn't do
this, you didn't do that.
But then you start to realize,as a leader, it's more about
serving your staff, to whereyou're mentoring them, you're
(17:26):
coaching them, you're helpingthem grow as a person, you're
investing in their life.
And then, when you're doingthat, you're getting on to.
The next phase is where you'reactually starting to build a
legacy.
You're starting actually tohave impact.
You're starting actually tohave impact.
And when you have impact onyour staff, on your customers,
that's when you have loyalty,that's when you have an employee
(17:50):
who's going to stay late to getsomething done without you even
asking, because they know thatyou care for them and they want
to care for you.
And so, yeah, leadership issuch a powerful thing and really
(18:10):
that term legacy leadership hasjust been floating around in my
mind about the last month, sixweeks, of leading in a way to
where, even if somebody leavesyour team, you've made an impact
on them and they're out attheir new job and they're
quoting you and they're sayingoh yeah, I learned this from Gar
, you know, and that's just sopowerful you literally are,
you're, you're causingtransformation inside of your
(18:34):
team, and that's just, that'spowerful man.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Absolutely.
Leadership can be misused andabused, but it also can be used
to motivate and inspire peoplein a beautiful way, not just for
what the leadership can get,but those relationships and
those bonds they can last for alifetime to use, and that we
(18:58):
don't want to mishandle it sovery well that you speak on that
and give encouragement to otherleaders out there as well.
Let's say, hey, you know itdoes matter.
You know what I do, it's notthat, it's just a parking orders
Right, so good job.
Do you think the RV rentalmodel could be a good side
business for a driver,especially for those with land
(19:21):
or seasonal home base?
What would you say?
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah, most definitely I do.
If you've got land, you can runa fireside, yeah, right on your
land.
Because basically what we do iswe're a management company,
right?
So we take people's RVs, wegroup them together, we bring
them into our possession andthen we rent them out for them
on their behalf.
And so if you have landinstantly right there, you're
earning revenue because you'recharging the owner for storage
(19:48):
of the RV when it's not beingrented.
But then the other side of ittoo is you know you've got to
have a team, because if you'reon the road and you've got a
rental, you know the RV is goingto need to be cleaned.
You're going to need someone todo a walkthrough of the RV.
Or if it's a travel trailer andthey want it delivered, you're
going to need someone to deliverit for you.
(20:10):
So if you're good at delegatingand managing people, you can
easily build a team.
And I usually recommend with anew franchise, you know, run it
yourself first.
And most of our franchisesthey're owner-operator,
husband-wife teams.
They love doing the businesstogether.
The kids are involved.
The husband's usually working onthe RVs too.
(20:30):
That's a billable item $125 to$145 an hour to work on an RV.
So there's multiple ways tomonetize it.
And then, yeah, once you'vecome in and you've learned the
business and you've built a team, then yeah, you can structure
it in a way where you're doingboth nice and you guys um how
(20:51):
they get help from you guys.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Is that more so from the, the franchise or um pattern
, or is it something else thatyou provide?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
yeah, so we're.
We give them all the systemsand the software and the
training and the coaching andmentoring and basically
everything they need to be upand running and to continue to
run.
We have a full corporatesupport team.
We've got about I don't know, Ihaven't counted recently, but
maybe six or eight full-timestaff that is there to support
(21:21):
the franchisees with differentthings.
We do a yearly retreat, we dowhat we call open office hours,
where you can click in severaltimes throughout the week, and
we have mentorings and coachings.
So that's the beauty of afranchise model is you're
literally purchasing into aproven system, so you're never
like out there wondering, okay,what's next or what do I do in
(21:44):
this situation.
And then, too, it's a wholecommunity right, we've got 70
locations around the country,and so we're all doing this
together, we're all encouragingeach other together in this
business.
Most of the franchises in ourcommunity are Christians,
christian entrepreneurs, doingthis together.
So it's good to know that youhave a community of like-minded
(22:07):
people that are doing thisbusiness together.
It's encouraging.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
It is.
That's very encouraging.
Thank you for letting us knowthat too Many people they are
concerned about what we aredoing business with, what's
going on behind the scenes,what's the future look like, so
that stability is good to putout there as well.
You can help thousands offamilies take trips, but for us
you know road warriors out here,truckers it's not always about
(22:34):
vacation, it's about making aliving.
So still, I bet there's a storyor two that reminded you of why
road life matters.
Do you have any success storiesthat you can share from your
experiences?
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, on road life with the family when we were
traveling, yeah, I mean tons ofbeautiful memories for sure.
I remember, actually, when Iwas young, I would ride with my
grandpa in his semi and go dosome trips and it just yeah,
there's just something aboutdoing that together and building
those memories, which is greatand so, uh, it's it's, it's
(23:08):
definitely, it's definitely, uh,something that we look forward
to doing again Once we get acouple of kids out of the house,
get back on the road and makingthose memories together.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Nice, yeah, so at time together, it's well spent
making great memories together.
That's awesome.
So what's one of the biggestmyths you heard from living a
dream on the road and what is itreality kind of really like for
it?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
One of the biggest myths as far as life on the road
.
You know, I don't know I'mtrying to think I don't know if,
as far as before we startedtraveling, I didn't necessarily
hear any myths or loss.
I mean, we hear more myths inregards to homeschooling.
You know, because we traveledand homeschooled the kids, you
know there's several myths wewould always hear about
(23:59):
homeschooling, like, oh, yourkids are going to be socially
awkward and this, and thatthey're going to be behind all
these things, these things.
But my kids are all extremelyextroverted and and uh and
people, people and uh and thatyou know fall behind and stuff
like that.
But that's none of that hasbeen the case, that's for sure
breaking those boundaries.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I love it as a family .
What about security and thingslike that?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
uh, maybe there's some concerns on some people's
minds as well oh security as faras life on the road yeah yeah,
you know, the first couplewinters that we hit the road I
would, I would bring a, uh,carry a gun with me, because I
was like I don't know what it'sgoing to be like, you know, and
(24:43):
and I don't even know if allstates, I don't know if I would
have gotten in trouble in somestates, I didn't even really
research it.
Like I had my concealed permit,you know, in Michigan, and then
I had my little gun safe that Ikept my handgun in, and so I
carried the first couple winterswe went, but man, um, we never
really ran into.
Actually, when we got home onewinter somebody was breaking
(25:07):
into our house as we werepulling back into our house, but
as far as on, the road you know, we've never really had
situations where we felt like,uh, unsafe, or anything like
that.
You know, we really didn't.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
That's good to hear Good feedback.
So for listeners out there umfacing burnout, debt, business
struggle, what's something thathelped you mentally reset and
keep pushing?
Speaker 2 (25:30):
business struggle.
What's something that helpedyou mentally reset and keep
pushing?
You know it's.
It was always, uh, in thosenegative times of yeah, you know
of, of, you know, tough timeswith the business finances,
different things like that itwas always just the hope that
things are are going to getbetter, you know.
And just pressing into God andjust remind, remembering all the
(25:50):
times where life got hard andGod brought us through, you know
, and just remembering thosetimes gives you that hope.
And you know, as you have thathope, then that just gives you
the faith that you need to justkeep pressing on.
And that's very common inentrepreneurship.
You know, to have those up anddowns and back and forth.
And well, what if this doesn'twork out?
What's that going to look like?
(26:14):
And it's just knowing that,even if something doesn't work
out, you've learned somethingand you take that into the next
adventure, you know.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
I like that Great, great advice.
So what's next for Fireside RVRental?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Do you see any new opportunities that could apply
to folks like in the truckingworld?
What would you say RVs is.
You know we call it wheelestate.
I write about that in my wheelestate storybook is it's a home
on wheels, you know.
So people rent RVs to gocamping, people rent RVs to go
to races or music festivals, orwe work with insurance companies
(27:04):
.
You know, if somebody'sdisplaced because of something
to do with their home, ifsomebody's displaced because of
something to do with their home,and so we just keep looking for
those opportunities to helppeople get outdoors and use real
estate.
And there's over 12 million RVssitting around the country
doing nothing most of the time.
So it's kind of sky's the limitas far as RVs sitting around
(27:26):
doing nothing, and then alsopeople that want to experience
the outdoors but don't have anRV.
So it really creates this greatopportunity.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I feel like you're talking to me there.
I got my RV sitting outsideright now.
Better go check in there, makesure everything's okay.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah, right, yeah, yeah, they sit around.
You know the tires start dry,rotting Next thing you know you
got some mice in there, this andthat.
And the cool thing too about anRV that's just sitting putting
it with fireside is now you getto depreciate it under IRS Tax
Code 178.
Same as you get to depreciateyour real estate investments.
So now it's a write-off tooffset your taxes and you also
(28:07):
get to write off the storage andinsurance and repairs.
And then, obviously too, youhave the earning potential of it
earning you money instead of itjust sitting around, you know.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Turn it into an asset versus a liability.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Exactly yeah, you turn that liability into an
asset.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Great, great job.
Help people with the businessmind.
It's not easy.
We're bombarded by social media, we're bombarded by stress of
life.
But to think about a way thatwe can actually provide for
ourselves a little more, alittle something extra.
For, like you said, if acamper's sitting outside not
doing anything most of the year,what can it do for you, right?
So here's the way to do itFireside.
(28:49):
Thank you for that advice.
I think it's great.
I think you got a great story.
I think you could keep onsharing that.
I think that people need tohear more of that.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yes, sir, you're very welcome, do you?
Speaker 1 (29:01):
have anything else you wanted to add before we go,
any words of wisdom or adviceyou'd like to give for people
out there that are listening?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
No, if there's any listeners out there that they're
looking to do something on theside entrepreneurial adventure
on top of what you're alreadydoing, I would just encourage
you to just try something.
It's very easy to have thesedifferent ideas and then the
next different idea, but you gotto just try something.
If it doesn't work, it doesn'twork.
(29:32):
But forward movement alwaysbrings clarity.
So try something, Take a stepforward and if it works, great.
If it doesn't work, you'velearned something.
And now when the next idea popsup, you take what you've
learned into that next idea.
And who knows?
You know you could have thenext big idea that people need
(29:53):
to solve a problem that exists.
You might be the solution tothat problem.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
All right, awesome, so check out FiresideRVRentalcom
.
Is that correct?
Yes sir, all right.
So, man Gar, I reallyappreciate the real talk that
you brought to the table here.
You know trucking NRV, the lifemay be a little different, but
on the inside it's pretty muchthe same.
So it's all about resilience,purpose, learning how to keep
(30:22):
moving forward, like you said,one step at a time.
And even when the plans changeyou can.
You can move with it.
So to the listeners out there,whether you're on mile 200 or
mile 2000, remember thatsometimes the biggest
breakthroughs come afterbreakdowns, and you can learn
about this by Gar's journey andhis franchise at
(30:42):
firesidervrentalcom.
So until next time, stay steady, stay sharp, keep on delivering
.
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