June 17, 2025 • 56 mins
Michael shares his journey from Enterprise Rent-A-Car to real estate entrepreneurship, highlighting how each career step taught valuable lessons about leadership, influence, and customer service. His decision to leave corporate America wasn't about dissatisfaction but about creating a life and business fully aligned with his and his wife Cristi's deeper goals.
• Starting as a rental car agent and witnessing a tie get caught in a paper shredder (a moment that still lives in infamy)
• Working in diverse environments including South DeKalb and Kindercare, where he learned patience and adaptability
• Transitioning to franchising, where he developed skills in influencing without direct authority
• Realizing that despite corporate success, his goals required entrepreneurial freedom
• Building True Blue Mountain Group with a focus on operational excellence and customer experience
• Developing systems that create consistency in real estate transactions
• Using community involvement and networking to establish presence in Blue Ridge
• Leveraging social media connections to reach potential clients seeking vacation properties
• Understanding that when you "burn your ships" and commit fully, going back isn't an option
• Sharing his DIY disaster of accidentally drilling into a water pipe (and the smart move of putting the screw back in)
#truebluemountaingroup#realestate#bourbon#networking#KellerWilliams#KW#LOVE
From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Start like they all start, because Alan's told them
(00:01):
this too you were moving cars.
I Washing cars in a suit,getting your tie sucked into the
vacuum cleaner.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Okay, so it's worse than the tie in the vacuum
cleaner.
We used to have these guyscalled Sunshine Boys and they
were retirees.
They would just do nothing butmove cars for us and I watched
one guy get his tie sucked in apaper shredder and it literally
lifted off the trash can andsucked it towards his neck and
we were all like die.
So he unplugged the next day.
So like yeah, were you laughingor concerned All of a sudden?
(00:33):
Yeah, a lot of my answers todaywill be all of them.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
That is hilarious.
I mean the mental image of thatone is right out of office
space, right?
You're thinking, here he goes,he's got the safer one hand, the
ties get sucked in and it'shard to go to his neck.
You're like, oh my god, noone's gonna die.
Welcome to the small businesssafari, where I help guide you
to avoid those traps, pitfallsand dangers that lurk when
navigating the wild world ofsmall business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
(00:58):
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal
and professional goals.
So strap in Adventure Team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
(01:25):
I think this meeting's beingrecorded, alan.
Oh my God, brace for it.
So, guys, another episodecoming at you getting ready to
rock and roll.
We've got a great time becausewe have a two-parter.
This is the second of thetwo-parters.
If you didn't get the first one, go back and check out Christy
Ducouflet, which we're going tofigure out what we're going to
(01:47):
title it, but I'm thinking aboutthose titles.
Are you leaning into the sexcrimes thing?
Hell, yeah, okay.
Hashtag true crime.
Hashtag true crimes.
Hashtag sex crime.
From sex crime, from sex crimesand masonic colors.
To selling real estate in blue,it's true.
Blue Bums.
Come check us out, because wecan help you sell your house and
(02:11):
get you a few extra people.
Isn't it so much more funhaving people here in person?
It?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
is.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And they brought us a nice bottle.
Oh, and who is this episodesponsored by Russell's Reserve?
Ah, everybody give a cheers forthat.
No, so we had put Christy backin the sound booth.
It would be pivotal.
Are we going to ask questionsof Michael?
Yes, so kind of like the Mavsgame, alan.
(02:35):
So, alan, I heard about thisgreat story on Mavs game.
Yeah, let's not go there shallwe Bob?
Oh, come on, you can't leave thelisteners hanging on that.
There's probably some thatdon't know this.
All right, go Google the matchgame.
And it was in the what?
It was?
A newlywed game, actuallyNewlywed game.
(02:55):
I said that Where's thestrangest place you've made?
Whooping Husband answers That'dbe in the butt, bob.
Nope, the husband answers Hisanswer was in the field.
And then the white comes outand she goes That'd be in the
butt, bob.
There we go, everybody, theDooley Web Game, and that led
(03:16):
like into 70.
This is 70.
So they had to blow them up.
Oh my God, macon Whoopie, yeah,which is the name of the, the
hockey team down in Macon,georgia.
So we have a guest, we do.
Nah, all right, we have a guest.
This is part two, guys, allright, so we're going to work on
the title.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
The first one.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
It seems to be working because we are about 5%
and we've got a huge audience inAustralia, as a matter of fact,
canada, and we've got a hugeaudience in Australia, as a
matter of fact, and I had one ofour old guests actually reach
out to me because he loved thePooper Scooper Will Milliken
episode Is that right?
And he said, man, I want to getthat guy.
(03:56):
What was it about the PooperScooping episode he liked, I
don't know?
With Troy Truin and I, growyour small business out of
Tasmania, not just Australia,but Tasmaniamania, which we have
an open invite to go play golfand stay with.
That's an island, right, I'veheard, and michael's off and one
and michael's over therejumping around take me, take me,
take me, take me.
I'm like, okay, we'll take it.
(04:18):
That's a long flight.
Do we have any more?
Did we have to, uh, put christyin a sound booth and decide if
we want to bring her?
Christy?
It'd be like the reverse pocketout, then Christy in Australia,
all right.
So, guys, if you didn't checkout the last episode, go check
it out.
It's great.
But Christy and Michael, he canplay out here.
And Christy had an incrediblebackground where she helped root
(04:41):
out sex trafficking, humantrafficking, got to see just the
worst of the worst of peopleand actually kept a sense of
humor about it, so much so thatshe just had to go sell real
estate.
And we were in Georgia.
Yeah, connect those dots.
I don't know, I still don'tknow.
But then again I got my ass inthe mechanic on the gym and I'm
just a stupid ass.
You know what I'm saying.
(05:02):
Yeah, all right, thank you,alan.
So Michael is on the hot seat.
Michael DD Play Now.
Usually I say let's have himintroduce himself, and you look
at me and say, hey, who do wehave today?
But today I don't know him aswell as you do, cause you guys
were way, I mean way back, and Imean you're old.
Yeah, so Michael's not nearlyas old as I am, so okay, so all
(05:26):
right.
So, uh, you met him whenautomobiles were around, but
obviously we did.
There were cars, all right.
So why don't you introduce ourguest?
No, just one of my dearestfriends and, um, you know, he's
right up there with cousin Brad,somebody I talked to multiple
times a week and we used to worktogether in enterprise.
(05:47):
We've actually worked togetherin franchising, so two different
organizations.
Somebody I respect tremendously.
Uh, you know, just a highintegrity guy.
Love the way, thanks.
Loves his customer servicephilosophy.
You would too.
And uh, so it's been.
We've gone through a lottogether.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
You know are we talking about me well, oh yeah,
you're here okay yeah, so no,but Michael is somebody again.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
going back to the integrity, just a high integrity
guy met him in the corporateworld.
He's been with three differentcorporate organizations that I
can think of, um very successful.
He can actually speak corporateand do very well in the
corporate game.
But he's apparently got alittle bit of an entrepreneurial
streak as well which you knowtwo of those organizations I
(06:42):
think allowed you to kind of umlean into that a little bit.
And where this podcast is goingto end up is that he has now
left the corporate world to workwith his wife in a small town
and they live in the same houseand they're going to be in
(07:02):
business together.
This is partner, partner,partner partner, partner it is
so wrapped around the axle.
It's going to be interesting tohear about it.
I can't wait to unpack all this.
So, michael, I'm so interestedin the first thing.
First is Alan says did you seethat Alan is now oh, alan's over
(07:22):
there picking daisies.
Alan will be right back.
This bottle of Russell's isalmost empty.
All right, so again, not me.
What do you mean, though?
You take the biggest gulp ofeverybody that was just the next
four.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
You go to the next four and went to the bottom.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I don't know what happened.
Yeah, wasn't me, not me.
By the way, I just want to goon.
I heard saying this is thelongest I've never had Christy
Sandigan to meet.
Then you've been in the sameroom together.
I know.
You know what it's not working.
She is in the sound room behindthe pillows.
You know what?
We're going to go take apicture of this on Instagram.
(07:58):
We're going to put this onInstagram, where Christy is
hiding behind the pillows, bythe way, there's so much work.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I feel like we're like in third grade you sunk my
metal ship.
I feel like I have a fort.
I don't know if our listenerswill quite get this, but I hope
they do.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Pew, pew, pew.
No, you're dead.
I'm not dead, You're dead.
I've got you All right.
Now back to Michael, shall we?
First of all, Alan loves to sayhe's a good collector of people
, but he surrounds himself withgood and interesting people.
I'm pretty sure to surroundyourself with sucky people,
Right?
So I know he's been veryexcited about getting us all
together to do this.
So, Michael, you came out ofschool and you went corporate.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
And what was your first job and what were you
thinking you were going to dowith that first job at college?
Wow, so I chased a girl injacksonville, florida, and
answered an ad in the paper forenterprise rent-a-car and that
was something I remember thebrown rat paper car.
I was like, how do they drive?
You can be, can't see out onthe windshield, gotta be my deal
.
And so yeah, that's what peopleused to ask.
(09:06):
It's the question.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
How do you see out of the corner?
But that's so.
You answered that in thenewspaper.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yes, I went to farms and noble I don't know if that
place is still around.
There are got the Sunday paperin Jacksonville Florida, which
probably 40 or 50 Sunday papersacross the United States.
I picked Jacksonville Floridaand yeah, that's.
I'll get to know.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Allen in a strange way.
So you go to Enterprise, butdid you know the background of
how good they were at findinggood talent and then grooming
that great talent?
Did you have any idea what thatwas?
Or was it just?
Hey, seems like a gig I coulddo.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, so good, fantastic question.
I didn't realize it until thefirst re-interview questions and
I realized I'm not on springbreak here, I'm actually getting
a job and with some highlyskilled, highly competitive,
qualified people and I'm like,okay, I think this is my home.
It was just kind of that deal.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
So you saw that challenge and you went, oh yeah,
right off the bat.
And you went, I'm in.
Oh yeah, you want thischallenge.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
A lot of black people .
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, so you were digging it, so you dug the
culture, you got into it, and soyou start, like they all start
and cause Alan's told them thistoo you were moving cars cars in
a suit, getting your tie suckedinto the vacuum cleaner.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Okay, so it's worse than tie the vacuum cleaner.
We used to have these guyscalled sunshine boys, so there
were retirees.
They would just do nothing butmove cars for us and I watched
one guy get his tie sucked in apaper shredder and it it
literally lifted off the trashcan and stuff towards his neck
and we were all in a tie.
I'd be like unplugged the nextday, so like die, unplug the
(10:44):
next thing.
Were you laughing or concerned?
All the way, a lot of myanswers today will be all the
way.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
That is hilarious.
I mean the mental image of that.
One is right out of officespace, right?
You're thinking, here he goes,he's got the safe in one hand,
the ties get sucked in and itstarted to go to his neck.
You're like, oh my God, noone's going to die, true, no
one's going to die, all right.
So obviously that's sealed inyour brain.
Don't worry, there's counselingfor that.
(11:12):
Actually, I know a great one.
Her name is Christy.
She could help you out withthat.
So, all right, so you keepmoving on.
So obviously you we've talkedabout this and I shouldn't say
it, but let's go back.
You didn't know this, thelisteners don't know this, but
you became very successful withEnterprise and you got the
letter, just like Alan.
How did that go?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Wow.
So we talked about it in thelast episode, a little bit like
the struggle is the way right Ifyou go back to the Stoics right
.
And so I was in Jacksonville,florida, and then left to go to
Atlanta.
It took me to motion that Ididn't get close to family.
(11:51):
I had some family here, familyconcerns, and so that struggle
taught me a lot and maybe, maybethat'll help me in the future,
who knows.
But uh, so I took that tomotion and I worked my way right
back up.
I knew the system like anyother company.
If you know the system, you cando it.
The only differential is howquality the people are.
And so, gosh, I've come back toAtlanta.
(12:13):
This guy, alan, with really bigsize 14 shoes, maybe size 20
shoes, he came in and gotpromoted from Oregon and I was
like I can aspire to be that guy.
That's the guy I want to follow.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I wasn't exactly, you know, that hard to surpass, I
mean mentally.
You know it's like oh, he canget there.
I, oh, please, oh, come on,come on, yeah.
Okay, all right, she's hadenough.
Okay, Christy's coming in Storyof my life.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
I hear a lot of stories about Alan taking
Michael and the crew on like alot of fun excursions and I
don't know fun events that it istrue.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
He's the only person the only person I ever had
Waffle House three times in 24hours.
That is true.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
We worked hard and then, when we did well, we
played office.
So you guys need fun.
Alan and I only have get up.
I want Alan.
You know, if you take a dolphinon your course, maybe you get
to know him.
He's not salty at all, he's notover it.
Did we really get to Waffle's?
Not salty at all, he's stillhe's not over.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Did we really get to Waffle House three times on that
trip?
Yeah and oh, I don't need.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
I don't know, I don't , it was the CFF.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Awards.
Thing that we went to Biloxiright right after 9-11 was this
when we went to the Georgia Techgame.
Yeah, and we started cheeringagainst Georgia Tech and we went
to Waffle House.
I did not.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
And then we had Waffle House before.
How single were you?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I stand, corrected Technically.
I said corrected for theaudience here that's not
watching this.
We went to the Varsity aftertailgating, then to Georgia Tech
, then to Waffle House and thendropped into another Waffle
House in Mississippi.
Wow, so it was a well you canimagine.
Yeah, that must have house inMississippi.
Wow, so it was a well you canimagine yeah, that was a.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
That must've been a fun car to be in.
You'll see, yeah, varsityWaffle House.
And keep the windows rolled up,boys.
Oh, this smells really good.
Oh, Dutch oven Can't say that,All right, let's keep going.
All right, so team building.
So your idol Alan takes you tothe varsity.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
That's a little strong.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I'm a big ass either.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yes, you are Again for the listeners at home don't
picture Alan's ass, but I wouldsay that one of the things that
totally I subscribed to rightafter meeting alan was work for
somebody because you don't wantto disappoint them at the same
time.
That person is probably goingto throw a chair on the court
(14:55):
like bobby knight.
I just know that that couldhappen.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
It never will happen, but that was one of my little
things so so for people unlikeyou, chris, who tend to be just
sort of nice and just kind ofhoping that people do a good job
because they're supposed to,that's exactly right.
Every once in a while.
I hope everybody does it right.
Yeah, I do, and I tell themwhen they're not self-admitted.
It's okay If you tend to be anice and optimistic kind of
(15:21):
person.
Every once in a while you justgot to chuck a chair across the
court like Bobby Knight, just tolet them know that you can't.
So I'm more Bobby Knight thananybody.
I convinced him that, and Ihave four dead trash cans and
one that still sits in my office, just so everybody knows
exactly what I can do to a trashcan.
Yeah, and he's the last metalone that made it Because I
(15:44):
didn't to it for our skin.
Yeah, and he's the last metalone that made it Because our
words didn't make it.
So, yeah, couldn't make it.
But I'll tell you what, thoughI don't think anybody can kick a
trash can for the market Really, trash can Olympics.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I don't think anybody can kick it.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And I still have the welts on my shins to prove that
the car doesn't move when youkick it.
Yeah, but everybody wants to dothat too in the office.
But, but we digress, let's goback to that and and let's talk
about how nice managers do this.
All right.
So, honestly, you had a greatrun.
You said you know enterprise.
Hey, I got to move back toAtlanta.
(16:18):
You move, you meet this awesomeguy over here, the big ass idol
, howdy gal, and you keeprolling and you continue to have
success.
And then when did you decide tosay, all right, I'm done.
Wow, so I had so interested.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
So, yeah, just kick me off the mic if I'm going too
long here.
But so I worked at Enterprisefor a while, mostly working in
South DeKalb, which is kind ofironic, right, and so there's
mostly 90% African-Americanfolks, and God really taught me
patience there.
And so my next gig wasKindercare, learning Centers,
(16:57):
which is not hardcore retail andI worked with 90% females, and
so I think that's like part ofmy path to success is learning
patience, right, learning to bedifferent than you, learning
what it takes to kind of setyour knowledge and your
experience aside and learnsomething new.
And so that's, yeah, that's.
(17:18):
That was the step that kind ofgot me back to.
The next step is when Alan andI reunited the band and
franchising, and, uh, thoseexperiences were fantastic,
really, really, really fantastic.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
All right.
So you left, you did uh, youstayed in South Dakota.
You do gender care, yep, um.
However, somewhere along theline you ended up in Arizona.
Was that a?
Was that a thing?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
No, no it could be.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
I don't know.
I've never heard that story.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I heard 120 kids got busted.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, I'm going to set that one aside.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I think we put a pin in that one.
That's episode three that won'tair yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
All right, thank you, and it's about to get really
juicy.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I'm sure there's 124 proof.
So yeah, I went to Kindercare,partly because they I'm saluting
.
There's a weird thing.
There's a sign conversationgoing on in front of me that I
can't hear.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
You know what the worst part is Is that most
people driving in their carscan't hear that anyway, and all
they hear is this whisper backon bullshit nose.
I thought that was Christy andthen they usually message me and
let me know how bad the songwas, so continuing on.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
So yeah, so Kindercare at the time was
recruiting a bunch of peoplefrom Enterprise and they were
looking to change theenvironment of promoting
teachers to management, tolearning and maybe there's
somebody else that knows thesales culture of business to
consumer a little bit better andso they were changing the
culture of skincare.
So there was oh gosh, I joinedlike seven or eight, one of them
(18:51):
you worked with.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
You had these people move over from enterprise to buy
into a kinder care franchise.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
No, not a franchise, it was a corporate store.
They were all corporate stores.
Oh, we were all area regionalmanagers.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Oh, I did not know that.
Okay, so you even knowinglymoved over to help snotting
those kids.
I remember him telling me hegoes it's kind of the same thing
.
You have the same metrics,except for, instead of our
financials being based on a percar basis, it's a per kid basis
a little bit, yeah, but there'sa huge difference.
(19:25):
Um, I mean, and this is ahorrible story, but like, in one
of the centers there was achild that died, yeah, oh no you
know, and I mean you know, wehave this day in my life we
we've.
We had some horrible thingshappen at enterprise where
people were gunned down in ourvehicles.
I mean, they were the, you know, the official rental car
company of the Flair's Ball inAtlanta and so it was, you know,
(19:48):
it was just all kinds of crazystuff.
But then when he told me thatstory about how I've had a lot
of customer service, difficultphone calls not that that was
tough man, the phone- callsomebody.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Phone calls Not that that was tough.
The phone call somebody passesaway in your center.
It's a.
It's a long day, that's athat's a low life, yep Right.
It is what it is, yep.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah, that's tough, all right.
So, uh, thank you, alan, nowlet's get.
So he came out of it.
So we're out of bourbon and Ihit a bummer.
I'm sorry, but I mean it's a,it's a big deal and I mean it's
it's testament to him that Imean cause I could see in in
enterprise.
I mean we could handle almostanything customer service wise,
(20:29):
but we were still kind of likechipper and oh hey, no problem,
lots of care that you know, thatkind of immense.
You can't have that whensomebody's child just died and
it wasn't because anythinghappened, it was just.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
It was a True, but the common thread was obsessed
over the customer experience.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Oh, here we go, Alan.
Let's obsess over the customerexperience.
No but it's true, because youtalked about that, you know, and
again, your wife who got to seethe worst of the worst and you
had this happen to you andthat's a low light.
I mean, it's tough Anytimesomething tough hits you like
that, but if you think about thecustomer experience, there's
nothing you guys could have doneor prevented.
(21:08):
Potentially, I don't know.
But it's not even getting backNow you have to go after it and
you still need to go solve thatproblem and figure out what the
next steps are.
True, so you go, do all that.
You've worked your kinder care.
I want to keep arcing to findout when did you leave kinder
care?
Speaker 3 (21:28):
hold on before you get there.
I've been saying one thing holdon one minute michael, I'm
gonna use that.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
That's gonna be the name of this.
Hold on, hold on one minute,hold on one minute.
I have to say something.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
But Michael had talked about, like now, that he
works with primarily women andthat was when him and I met and
that was a big conversation thatwe had because I worked with
mostly men and at the time hewas working with mostly women.
And it was an interestingdiscussion that we had actually
when we met Because we were likeI think that helps us get along
(21:59):
.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
That was what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Because he was used to dealing with women.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
And you're still harder than the first time and
I'm just.
It's just an interestingdynamic.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Uh, it was an interesting time in our lives,
for us to meet each other when,the where we were in our lives
at the time and what, whatprofessional position we were in
our lives as well.
That was interesting, but yeah,okay, I digress.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
No, you did not digress.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
So you know what I love and we're gonna we're gonna
hold that one later.
Uh is that you're the hardestone I've ever worked with you.
You went into business with me,so let's continue on.
This is the Massacism Massacreepisode.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
We will bring it home .
Speaker 1 (22:42):
We're going to bring this all home.
It's going to be like how I metyour mother.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
We're going to bring it all home.
He doesn't know that.
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Thank you.
All right, oh, wow, beautiful,let's continue Back.
Oh, wow, beautiful.
Let's continue Back to thekinder care and let's get off
the killing kids.
Well, it's tough.
I mean, you're talking abouttrustedtoolboxcom for all your
hate mail, right there.
Let me tell you about this.
And especially if you think thedrywall's bad, just wait,
(23:15):
because I've had people act likeI killed their kid over bad
drywall jobs.
You're just leaning into this,aren't you?
I am, so let's continue on.
All right, back to Kinder Care.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Let's move Come on Ben.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
How about drywalling your kitten in the wall?
That was a kid's story, kid'sstory.
All right, another episode Okay.
So, another episode, okay.
So you lead Kindercare at Nawa.
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Well.
So we got the band backtogether.
So I went into franchising withBig Al, which is so interesting
because every company I workedfor really had strong brand
standards.
Didn't really know what thatmeant until I joined the
franchising.
What that you know.
Everybody has to work to abrand standard and you have to
enforce that.
That was fun, except withemployees.
(24:02):
You could hire them, you couldfire them, you could promote
them, you could demote them, youcould bonus them, you could dot
pay and with franchisees, asAlan explained to me rather
quickly, you got influence.
And so that was a very, veryinteresting step in my life how
to influence people that I knewhow to do but didn't rely on.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Because you couldn't control, you couldn't command to
control.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Again back to.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Christy and her background.
You know military.
You get an order, you do not.
Christy had a gun.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
What's the order for that.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Christy still has a gun.
I love that might have a goodmother.
Right now she kind of does.
Did you hear that?
I know I got.
I got a little nervous already.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
You just went over her everyday carry.
It's like a 45 compact andmetal straw.
But let's move on.
Michael actually made aheadboard.
Did you not make that headboard?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yes, with the secret compartment for both our guns.
For both our guns by the bed.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Where you sleep.
Yes, yeah, let's go back realquick.
Why Chris doesn't have any gunsin his house?
Because I would not be thefirst one to use them.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
And I'm not putting the other one.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
There is no way I'm putting it anywhere near the
other one.
I dare you Do you want to tellthe story about the unfortunate
Amazon delivery guy.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
No.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
First of all, this segment is about me.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Chrissy and second of all.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Chrissy got in a lot of trouble Because I was too
honest.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
He did ask if he wanted some water, Did his arm
heal.
Fuck you wouldn't it.
But water solves everything.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Alright, we got the band back together.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
And you're right.
People say, hey, I'm going togo buy a business.
I'm going to go buy a business.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I'm going to go buy a business.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
The first time I've been flipped off by somebody
other than Chris on this podcastand I hate doing this.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I did flip Chris.
No, chris did.
Oh, and of course she diddouble bird.
Don't I just double bird you?
Speaker 1 (26:09):
That's three birds so far.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yep One stone.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Okay, that's a great one, alright, let's go.
So franchising, you realize?
Now I'm dealing with SouthDakota, atlanta.
I'm dealing with women, now I'mdealing with franchisees.
Clearly, I hate myself.
I don't like working withpeople that are fun to work with
, because franchisees they soundso happy, they're like oh yes,
(26:34):
I can't wait to do this, oh, I'mgoing to do this, and you go
hey, you're not doing it theright way.
Oh, yeah, but I'm so muchsmarter than you.
Yeah, okay, but I'm not gettingthe results I want.
So can I have my money back?
I want to just interject.
I think what Michael's pointwas is that he had a lot of
experience working with peoplewho were not like him and, as a
(26:57):
result, he had to learn to takea step back and listen to people
and hear where they're comingfrom, and it it helped him be
better at what he was doing.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
A thousand percent.
I mean you got to thank you, Iwant to put the knowledge.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, make sure we coming, or or.
Or he could grab his gun, orBrad Christie's gun, I don't
somebody's, I mean.
Or he could grab his gun, orGreg Christie's gun, I don't
know.
Somebody's gun I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Let's go, can you tell me I'm pretty speak at this
point.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
But yeah, no absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
So, yeah, we got the band back together.
We're working at our firstfranchise together, or as a
franchise war, Sorry, boo-boo.
And so that's where I cut myteeth in franchising.
And so it was interesting, like, why did I get into it?
I wanted to work with you,obviously.
That was cool.
It didn't work Saturdays andSundays.
That was very good.
(27:48):
We had so much fun.
We had a ton of fun.
But the best story of that is Itold my boss, which I still
call her boss, told my boss,which I still call her boss Can
I mention her name?
I won't, boss, fantastic.
She was like hey, when do youwant to start?
I'm like well, I've got avacation plan.
Do you mind if I take thevacation somewhere in the middle
of my first three months?
She's like yeah, not a problem,I'll shoot an email of the
(28:10):
dates.
Great, my first day at work.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
She's like hey, where are those dates you're taking
off?
I'm like 27 days in June, Tripto Africa.
To what Son are you shitting meright now as a small business
owner when you hire a realestate agent to work on an EQ?
Oh, I see the questions.
What'd you learn from that?
Yeah.
And when you say millennial, Idon't know.
Take 27 days off.
Yeah, you need 2.7 days.
Yeah.
And when you say millennial, Idon't know, take 27 days off, oh
(28:39):
yeah.
You need 2.7.
Yeah, yeah, and we still laughabout that.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
But like, hey, I sent you an email and you approved
it.
You didn't read it, oops, sowow, so that's where we went.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
All right, so we keep going that way.
You work in the franchisingworld, you work in another bunch
of franchising concepts,continuing serving the skills
figuring out what's going on.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
So I left that organization.
I went to an organization thatactually puts people in a
position to make career options,career choices, and it was a
franchising concept aroundfranchising.
In a weird way, there arepeople that hate their boss,
hate their job, want more money,want more time off that laid
(29:21):
off, and so our franchisingconcept was essentially, how do
we be career advocates for themand help them make choices in a
coaching way, which wasfantastic, right up my alley.
How do we coach people to makethe best choice?
And often enough, that choicewas franchising.
Sometimes it was getting hookedup with a recruiter, sometimes
it was staying in their job,sometimes they could find their
own job.
Sometimes it was getting hookedup with a recruiter, sometimes
it was staying in their job,sometimes they could find their
own job.
Sometimes it was yeah, juststop working because you're
(29:44):
where you need to be.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It must have been super rewarding for you to be
able to do that at the time.
I mean with all your recruits,it's certainly a state test,
yeah, and of course you can seeyour motivation Again.
It's not about just trying toget that whole money buck and
getting the franchise consultingsee if they get placed, but
you're trying to help somebodyreally truly find a good place
absolutely, absolutely and andthat was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
And you know I'm gonna try to connect the dots
here back to the last episode,but you know when, when christy
made that big change, when Imade the big change, one of the
things that we looked at isgoals are super important and
you know, I don't know ifChrissy realized that, but when
we talked about she talks aboutmaking more money, it was about
(30:28):
her having self-worth.
It was also what is the moneygoing to do for her?
Right, it's going to have hermove to a mountain town.
It was going to have her retireearly.
It was going to have her retireearly.
It was going to have herprovide college for the kids.
It was more about the purposeof the money than actually the
money.
That was one of the things thatworking you coach people.
The goals are probably the mostimportant thing.
(30:49):
That will really pull youthrough difficult times and
it'll pull you towards greattimes.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
That's a great, honestly, man.
That is deep thought rightthere and I'm going to make it
undeep real quick.
But it's like Nick Saban whenhe got his teams together at
Alabama, which I hate, alabama.
But you've got to respect it.
You've got to respect this isthat he did not say gentlemen,
our goal this year is to win thenational championship.
(31:16):
Never, ever, said that ever.
He always talks about yourgoals, your intermediate goals,
your short-term goals, becausethat's the other thing.
I'm training another guy at myoffice in sales and I'm like,
hey, look, these are theestimates you've got to write.
I said you're going to writethem down in a piece of paper.
I said when you write one andsend it, you check the box.
(31:36):
I said, and when you check fourof those five, then we're done.
I said, and you're going tofeel better about yourself.
And then what's that's going todo?
What that's going to do is ahundred percent, commission guy,
at the end of the month you'regoing to make more money.
I said, but you can't sit thereand go oh, I can't make money,
oh, I gotta make money.
Oh, it's all about the moneywhen you guys don't know.
It's about returning that phonecall.
It's about doing that, showingus that in way that I was
(31:57):
supposed to.
It's about about doing thenetworking, about taking those
that time throughout the week tobuild that business and do the
business development goals.
I love that why?
Yeah, yeah, all right, where doyou want to go?
I know where I want to go, so Iwant to fast forward to this.
So you do that.
Michael, you know enough aboutme, let's talk more about me
(32:20):
please.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
It was more about less me and more him.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
You know what, Michael?
I have an opening as a podcastguest host.
You know what?
Hey, Michael, why don't youcome golf on my golf course here
?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
We have to go home on the way home between you and me
.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Uh, you're definitely golfing here and christy's
invited.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
She's a dirty handicap not too bad.
Yeah, let's see what she's.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Any money on the court it's just going to be your
court.
There's never a fourth.
We always play three, I alwaysplay three, I don't know.
I always think three people.
Okay, fine, um fine, all right,so we'll come to the end.
I want to talk about this.
So you've decided to make itultimately yeah, a great partner
.
Clearly you guys people have somuch.
You can see, the chemistry isthere, and now you guys are
(33:04):
going to start a real estateagency in Blue Ridge, georgia.
So let's go back to it.
Plug it again.
This is the second episode TrueBlue Mountain, grim.
We got it right, thank you, Ijust wanted to make sure we had
it right.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
I called the phone number.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
So you're jumping in.
You're like you know what, I'mgoing to get it, and now what?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I don't know if I can know, I'm going to backtrack a
little bit.
Why did we do it Like backpedalyou a little bit?
Why did we do it?
Like, honestly, we sat downabout a year ago and we're like,
what do we really want to do?
Like we, we've always beensuccessful, land goals in front
of us.
Like we, we've paid off ourdebt and we're going to build a
house and we're going to do ahouse we turn into near the BV.
Then we're going to go to themountains no goals.
And it was a period of timewhen we were just lost, right,
(33:52):
it was like, well, we've goteverything we want.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
I had to become a real estate agent.
Mom, you got it.
Yeah, not like big goals.
Like that was a survival goal.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
It was a survival goal.
And then we're like but youknow what?
We want more, and so we set itdown, and it was like the
corporate job just didn'tfulfill the goals.
Not from income, not from alifestyle, wealth equity we just
didn't get what we reallyneeded.
And so I've been coachingpeople into entrepreneurship for
five and a half years.
I think I need to do it.
(34:24):
My goals were that thick and sothe corporate world just didn't
do it.
It's great for some people.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
You're making a leap for the first time in your life.
You're making a leap for thefirst time and you're in your
life, you're being lying blindly, right.
So this is tough right, becausewho had healthcare?
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Well, that's my project for next week.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Oh episode 3.4 actually, yeah, actually, we got
a big guy.
We've had a mom right now.
Yeah, I use it.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
So I told my dog.
Yeah, yeah I think got a guy inblue Richard.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yeah, we do, do that Broker in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
We'll figure it out.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I know they're hip nation.
Hip nation, is it yeah?
Speaker 2 (34:59):
I listened to that episode.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, with Brian Hill Amazing, but he blew the roof
off of healthcare and I mean,the more he's going to get.
You did it right.
Uh, I did, I'm on it, yeah, andI will tell you, my whole
family's on it.
And, uh, sydney, who's innashville, north carolina, so
there's a primary care up theretoo, nice.
Yeah, that just happened.
But anyway, let's go back toyou.
(35:21):
So you're, you guys are here,we go, so you, you're taking the
lead.
Do you feel like you have asafety net?
Do you feel like you have anopt-out or do you feel like this
is it?
Man Chit's in the middle, allin.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Let's see.
So all the ships were burned.
I would say, right, we have noplan B.
We're in trouble with no plan B, right?
No backup plans.
We have to make this one work,and certainly there could be a
plan B, and there's certainly.
We've just never reallydiscussed it as like we could do
this.
This has to work.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Well, we're all in.
I mean we could sell everythingand move back to Phoenix and
start over.
Why?
I mean, yeah, but that's not.
We'd love it.
It doesn't fulfill our why Imean yeah, it doesn't fulfill
our, why, like, as far as movingforward, this is our all in.
We're all in, we don't have abackup.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Let me ask you a different question.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
We could go back.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
So right, so I get, we got the.
We can go back.
Um, does that make you feelbetter, that you know you could
always fall back, or do you feellike, at this stage in life,
even if everything just goes tototal shit?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
we know we can pay our bills and we have a place to
live.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yeah, that part.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
I mean that part to me at least, I know we wouldn't
be like homeless and not havebut I think, most importantly,
christy is like where we want togo is so important to us, like
our why is so defined, our goalis so defined, Like when we
think about it.
I know what that looks like, Iknow what that tastes like, I
know what that feels like.
It's so compelling, it's notfulfilling to think about going
(36:49):
back.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
It's just not fulfilling.
Telling it's not fulfilling, tothink about going back, it's
just not fulfilling.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
The only safety net is that we wouldn't be homeless,
but it's not a fulfilling thingPeople have asked me this too,
because when I took the leap andI jumped and Alan did the same,
I said you know what?
What made me feel better isthat I was 37 and even if it
totally freaking failed, I couldpick myself back up and go find
(37:15):
a job at 42 or 40.
Um, now here I am, um, a lotolder than that, 17.
Way older, way older.
So I I'm I'm unemployable atthis point.
You look pretty good.
Thank you for 72.
So, um, the point is, is thatnow you know when I look at it
and go, you know failure is notan option.
(37:36):
You know you look back on thatmission.
I love spades, by the way, so Iwant you to get to that, but I
just did that help you?
Or was that never even part ofyour thought process?
Speaker 3 (37:47):
I mean, there is a Walmart in Blue Ridge.
I could be a breeder.
I've been to that.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Walmart.
I've been to that Walmart.
I've never seen so many pajamasthat she'd not be able to.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
I saw that here in Johns Creek.
It is what it is.
Let's move along with thatconversation.
No, I honestly think there's noturning back.
I can't trade dollars for fun.
We both need to determine howmuch we need to work, how much
money we need to make where wework, how we work to find our
(38:21):
own success, and I think that iscompelling.
That in itself is compelling,let alone to the personal goals
we have.
Like, I just couldn't thinkabout going back to being
limited.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
No, I love where you guys are going and I think uh up
in that area is great, so talkto us about so you've jumped in.
What have you done to ignitethe group?
What are we doing?
What are you doing to get this?
Uh, so you've got a four-personteam you are two of.
We got two of the four personteam up, the yeah yeah yeah,
yeah, blue bound group yeah, noalan alan no, alan, alan, alan.
(38:53):
Steve Whitpaw Alan.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
And so it's very interesting.
So, like I'm an ops guy and soeasily it's how do we develop
the operational procedures forthe company?
It's, everybody knows thatwe're going to do that.
We're going to be obsessedthrough the client experience.
I mentioned that I feel alittle bit like herding cats in
the nicest way possible, becausewe have people that I Mean.
Every year she has a go, yeah,well enough, and everybody on
(39:18):
our team has a GSD hat.
We get shit done and right andbut everybody that's been
successful on our team hasmuscled it.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
What a great line, right They'd must.
Yes, yeah, I'm gonna actuallyget that bad.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
I'm going to actually get that badge.
I'm going to put that next tomy.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Phoenix PD.
A little red meat to the host.
Not going to lie, I put thePhoenix PD and the GSD on the
fleets from now on and a nicetrucker hat too.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
You can't just do like a.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
You know, I should get you guys some merch.
I'll get you guys merch.
We got some great trucker hats.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Yeah, but you know, honestly, it's like herding cats
a little bit, but at the sametime it's so fulfilling because
people that are really good atwhat they do could forget about
operations An incredible, greatpoint.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
That's why I'm just dying, because Christy's over
there rolling her eyes.
I'm in the sales.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
She is not.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
She's batting her eyelashes.
You know what she's saying.
She goes Michael, you're soawesome.
You're right, you are my bigidol.
Anyway, but the operationalprocess, that's what creates
that great customer experience.
Right, it's that repeatableprocess that you know that when
you go to your group for atransaction, you're going to get
this, this and this, and at theend, you're going to get the
(40:31):
outcome.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Of course it was Not this, this and this, and at the
end you're going to get theoutcome it's a little garbage
personality.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Sorry, of course, it was Not the process at all.
No, it is this must be so muchfun.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Listen, we banter all day.
It makes us go to sleep well atnight.
There's nothing left over atthat point.
But we obsess over theoperational process so that I'll
get lost to it.
It's like operational processso that I'll get lost to it,
cause, like Christie's battingher out, let's just let me again
.
She's like I'm so pretty overhere, so, but um no, still the
people that do what they need todo like do it at a high level,
(41:03):
and when you have good processes, the only the only mistake you
can have is have wrong people inyour group.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Yeah, no, no-transcript and call you back
(41:43):
for more work and in your case,transactions aren't as quickly
done and transact as you guys.
But the process is so importantand I think that's the big
differentiator.
A lot of people will go well,I'm going to go with her because
she's in my church, or I'mgoing to go with him because my
son said that he knows what sheis doing.
(42:03):
This is the biggest value moveFor a lot of us.
This is our biggest personalinvestment.
Now I don't know what'shappened in Blue Ridge, if it's
their second homes or firsthomes, but I got to believe
there's still a pretty bigtransaction.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
I don't think it matters if it's your first home
or second home.
It's still a huge process.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Yeah, it's a lot of money, A thousand percent.
And our process is so funny.
Our processes are around us,what's convenient for us, what's
good for us.
But then in person We've talkedabout that so much how do we
change the sales culture,language from it's a deal to hey
, we helped the family achieve agoal?
What's your goal for it?
You want to sell 200 ouncesnext year?
(42:44):
No, we want to have 200families happy Little things
like that, that process alone ofbeing client-focused rather
than us-focused.
And it's funny.
Last night we sat at a tablewith seven other realtors.
All of them had the samephilosophy they all wanted to
invest in Blue Ridge.
(43:05):
It was all about the client, itwas all about the customer.
It wasn't about what's good forthem.
So how do you differentiate?
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Right, because I would say, if you had seven
others that weren't with you,that were there, I know I would
They'd be in a ditch.
They would be.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
There's no way they'd get out of that place.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
There's no way to get out of that place alive.
I mean, I don't have a gun, butI have other words You've got
to be consistent.
Consistency.
But how are you?
Are you doing any advertising?
Speaker 3 (43:33):
Not yet but I think heavy, heavy referrals and I
think it's the honesty and thedirect client experience and the
honesty that we're in, it'svery heavy referral right now.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Yeah, it's very interesting how many of our
clients come from other clients,like, for instance, the police
officer that you were talkingabout, kim right, she's referred
.
As for clients, she trusts you,she trusts that other law
enforcement people are going tofeel like, oh, they're not going
to get hanky, they're reallycomfortable with our experience.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
So, Alan, this is where we're going to help them.
Uh-oh, that's right.
Referrals are not the way togrow your business.
While it is a great component,there are other things we need
to do, right.
So let's do some other things.
So you just said I'm interestedin the police department and I
give back, and so I happen toknow the Blue Ridge Police
Department for totally differentreasons.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
How fast were you going?
Now that I know, now that Iknow I wouldn't get out of that
one?
But how about a luncheon forthe blue right, Doing things and
giving back, but then up therein a small town community, what
are ways you guys couldadvertise that would help other
people think about it?
Because I had a lot of singlehandymen ago.
Chris, I'm just built onreferrals.
(44:52):
I'm like, listen, bro, you canonly do so many friends and
family and eventually,especially in tough times, you
need to have that bigger base,and so that's why I've always
put 4% into advertising here inAtlanta.
But again, I'm always runningthis roll call.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
What did you do yesterday Christy Yesterday?
Oh my God, You're so good on aChristy yesterday oh my god so
good on a podcast.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
No, hey, christy you don't when they're looking at
you.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
We spent the entire day right nice it was a long day
it's a long day yesterday, andso eventually people are like
why are you here?
We're just helping you.
Then the questions ask morequestions, ask more questions
asked and eventually they'relike what do you do?
Oh, we're with Keller Williamsand this is our day of giving.
(45:42):
This is what we're doing.
We don't force it, we justpeople will ask questions.
You show up, they want to knowwhy you're always present.
They want to know why you'realways volunteering.
People ask questions.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
Yeah, back to the other one.
I've heard this great phrasecalled the elephant leg hug.
You never said elephant to me.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
I never did say elephant.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
I always use leg hug, but I have used that line some
of the time.
But you're right, you'resitting there and they go.
Why are you here?
Oh well, as a matter of fact,I'm a real estate agent, so can
I hope you saw your house?
Goodbye.
That's like LinkedIn.
Those messages will be all good.
They say, hey, do you need helpwith your digital media?
Hey, I just really enjoyed yourpodcast episode with XYZ.
(46:21):
I would like to know if youneed to help with your finances.
I'm like come on, man.
I mean, come on, yeah, I can dothat.
That's where a personalconnection comes in Real estate
agents, totally a personalconnection comes in Real estate
agents totally a personalconnection, but in a small town.
I was interested because Ithink a lot of people need to
know what can you do in a smalltown to move the needle?
Besides the networking, becausewhat you guys are doing, that's
(46:43):
a lot of personal time andsweat equity.
What are some other things wecould be doing?
Speaker 3 (46:48):
Well, most of our I would say a huge portion of our
clients are people from out oftown.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
People that are buying a second home or a
vacation home For the half-packs.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
How do the people from Florida know about you?
Speaker 3 (47:04):
Yeah, I spend a lot of time on social media.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Yep, yep.
We reach out to other realestate teams in Florida With
real accounts.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
Yeah, with real accounts.
Really, that was a whole notherthing that was extremely
traumatic for me to switch fromall of my fake undercover names
to my real name.
We didn't even get into that.
I had nightmares for like amonth.
I'm having to like put my realname on social media.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
It's just as simple as, like your instincts, we
didn't get into this but likethe four or five things you've
learned as a police officerundercover.
So Christie goes to like aKeller Williams training there's
like a hundred agents and sawonline training.
She started writing down theirnames find out what offices that
work that and then she spentthe next day just call them.
Hey, I saw you in the trainingyesterday.
You have any clients want towork in the mountains, want to
(47:50):
bingo?
And so you just like you'reinstinctively, you just figured
out how to like skip, trace thatjob to that conclusion.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Yeah, I love this.
I think, as you guys move onagain on the air counseling, we
talked about doing somethinglike this.
If it were me and I were themand I'm trying to coach him I'm
going to coach him right now Iwould say I love what you guys
are doing.
Networking, However, I stilllike the social media presence.
I like the hashtags going haveyou thought about Vacation Blue
(48:16):
Ridge?
And then here's the other thingI do I hijack all the Vacation
Blue Ridge rental things and youstart doing the anti on that
and that's the campaigns thatwork back.
I'm talking in code, but if youwant to know more about what
I'm talking about, Chris atthetrusttoolboxcom because I
can't code it out becauseGoogle's listening, All right,
(48:37):
Google.
We are so confused right now.
No, I know, but this is whatthey they.
They don't want to they.
They got me, they got me.
I love how you guys are gettingback in there.
Great community, I think agreat.
Again.
It's a small community, butit's a small community where a
big community is coming involved.
But the big community must bepart of the small community,
(48:59):
isn't that an interesting littledynamic?
And so that's like vacationtowns that people see, seaports
on the Gulf and everywherearound the nation.
Here we go, alan.
Let's go to the final twoquestions.
Oh, and I can't wait to hearMichael's answer on this.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Oh boy, oh boy.
Finally, can we just ask one?
I need to ask one question ofAlan.
I know we need to wrap this up.
Did you do the one-man bobsledtoday?
No, I never did.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
Does Chris don't go on, man bobsled.
No, I don't think he does.
Okay, I want to know.
No, no, no, no, no no no, no,no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
no no, no, no, no, no, no, no nono, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, nono no, no, no, no no no, no, no,
(49:49):
no.
Hey guys, go listen.
Man push this thing out.
Man, do me a favor, do Alan afavor.
We all want to hear from him.
Alan needs Alan a favor to buy abuilding.
Anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
What are your two questions?
Bring it.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
We already asked the book.
We've already asked about afavorite feature of their home.
So we know that.
But what we really want to knowis that we're so interested in
the customer experience.
We talked about it becausewe're kind of customer
experience freaks.
Are you kidding me right now?
Yes, we are.
So, Michael, no, I'm scared.
What is a customer service atPeebham yours when you are the
(50:28):
customer?
I've been doing the same thingand you get to get to because we
did not let a person answer ata restaurant.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
The general manager comes up to you and says the
food's good, right, a lot ofchoices there.
And then you know he's lookingat the next table, like how many
tables do I have to get done inthe next hour?
That's crazy.
But the number one at arestaurant is do not touch my
plate without asking.
I cannot stand somebody grab myplate and they have it at chest
(51:01):
level and they're like you'redone, right?
Speaker 1 (51:03):
I'm like I don't like .
So, I don't like that.
And a little secret throughthis entire episode we didn't
talk about this.
But Michael is an excellentchef.
Right, he is.
And I know, I know, alan, youlove to cook and I do too, and
so you've even said he'sexcellent.
He's an excellent chef, which II trust Alan's judgment
(51:24):
completely.
So, obviously, the restaurant,it's always an easy one for us
to use, but I use the restaurantanalogy so often, even in
homework, homework, homeworkexperiences, because we're
contractors, we're allowed to bedirty, we're allowed to be late
, we're allowed to, you knowsmoke and you know kick our
cigarette and put it on yourhardwood floors and then kick
your dog, and you still kind oflike us because you're like, ah
(51:45):
well, well, alan won't like youparticularly, right, I know Alan
wouldn't love you so, but inrestaurants you've got to be on
point.
If you want to deliver thatservice, you've got to be on
point.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
This man is French and he wants to soff up every
last bit of sauce on his platewith whatever bread went over.
And if you take a plate beforeit completely leaks clean, he
will chop your hands, Love it.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
It's true that he leads in with a true that.
All right, alan, you ready?
Yeah, I want a DIY nightmarestory Now.
Alan and I just don't wantregular run of the mill.
We want Emergency services.
What?
Dismemberment, dismemberment.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
Some sort of squirting of bodily fluid,
mostly blood.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Free Fire, cool Water , flo Four Water.
Flood something for me.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
Kill something, rip your finger off we might have
squirting and water availablehere on this one Shoot, god dang
.
So my daughter's about to beborn.
I thought it would be fantasticand soft oh shit, I can't
believe I'm not going to sayborn.
I thought it would be likefantastic to install oh shit, I
(52:58):
can't believe I'm not going tosay this.
It's so stupid.
I'm going to install one ofthose wire racks right above the
washer dryer.
It's a simple project A coupleof anchors ahead and then on the
side, and so I'm like I'll getthe stud finder out, I'll make
sure my studs are wrapped.
I want to get water pipes.
That's the hot water, coldwater.
Where the washer's at Bingo Gotthat nailed, go to the side
walls.
I'm like let's go find a stud.
(53:19):
There can't be any water thereright.
Throw a screw in on theexterior wall that faces outside
and wow, that's weird.
Like which Cruz starts weeping.
So I back it out and I got astream of water from one side of
the laundry room hitting theother side of the laundry room.
Speaker 1 (53:40):
I'm not laughing with .
I'm laughing, not laughing at.
I'm laughing with yes.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
And I'm like that's weird.
And so like, well, how do I fixthis?
So we're like, well, screw itback in.
And so I did.
I screwed it back in to stopthe water.
And then I called a plumber andhe's like, oh, it's not good.
And I'm like, well, no, it'ssurely not good, it's water.
He's like, no, your entireexterior wall is not insulated.
I'm like, oh, I was due for aflood anyways.
(54:07):
That pipe was going to freezeand so there's no insulation at
all.
But it turned out to be thepipes that fend the upstairs
back room.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
I didn't even think they could do that.
Number one.
Smartest thing he did was putit back in.
Yes, you don't realize that.
So when you shoot a nailthrough your finger, leave it
Trust me.
Speaker 2 (54:30):
I have a whole bunch of those too.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
I have a whole bunch of nails, the hand, the hand
clamps right, the hand clampnever works, but when you screw
a pipe it hit it and you pull itback out and start going, put
it right back in and callsomebody because it's holding it
for as long as it can.
I can't tell you how many nailsand screws I've seen that have
rusted over time and people arelike who knew?
I'm like I know, you didn'tknow at the time, but you know
(54:53):
20, 20 years later, don't you?
Yeah, you, that's awesome.
Guys, we learned somethingtoday.
We have learned a lot aboutgetting into real estate.
No, you've learned a lot aboutwhat it takes to get out of the
corporate world.
You sat there and taughteverybody about how smart you
were being in the corporateworld and then you get out and
you said you know what?
Watch this because I'm about togo.
(55:14):
Prove you all that I can knowhow to do it.
So get out there and keep doingit.
Let's make it happen.
We got to go.
We're going to be back nextweek.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the Small Business
Safari.
Remember, your positiveattitude will help you achieve
that higher altitude you'relooking for in a wild world of
small business ownership higheraltitude you're looking for in a
wild world of small businessownership.
(55:34):
And until next time, make it agreat day.
Start like they all start, because Alan's told them
(00:01):
this too you were moving cars.
I Washing cars in a suit,getting your tie sucked into the
vacuum cleaner.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Okay, so it's worse than the tie in the vacuum
cleaner.
We used to have these guyscalled Sunshine Boys and they
were retirees.
They would just do nothing butmove cars for us and I watched
one guy get his tie sucked in apaper shredder and it literally
lifted off the trash can andsucked it towards his neck and
we were all like die.
So he unplugged the next day.
So like yeah, were you laughingor concerned All of a sudden?
(00:33):
Yeah, a lot of my answers todaywill be all of them.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
That is hilarious.
I mean the mental image of thatone is right out of office
space, right?
You're thinking, here he goes,he's got the safer one hand, the
ties get sucked in and it'shard to go to his neck.
You're like, oh my god, noone's gonna die.
Welcome to the small businesssafari, where I help guide you
to avoid those traps, pitfallsand dangers that lurk when
navigating the wild world ofsmall business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
(00:58):
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal
and professional goals.
So strap in Adventure Team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
(01:25):
I think this meeting's beingrecorded, alan.
Oh my God, brace for it.
So, guys, another episodecoming at you getting ready to
rock and roll.
We've got a great time becausewe have a two-parter.
This is the second of thetwo-parters.
If you didn't get the first one, go back and check out Christy
Ducouflet, which we're going tofigure out what we're going to
(01:47):
title it, but I'm thinking aboutthose titles.
Are you leaning into the sexcrimes thing?
Hell, yeah, okay.
Hashtag true crime.
Hashtag true crimes.
Hashtag sex crime.
From sex crime, from sex crimesand masonic colors.
To selling real estate in blue,it's true.
Blue Bums.
Come check us out, because wecan help you sell your house and
(02:11):
get you a few extra people.
Isn't it so much more funhaving people here in person?
It?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
is.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
And they brought us a nice bottle.
Oh, and who is this episodesponsored by Russell's Reserve?
Ah, everybody give a cheers forthat.
No, so we had put Christy backin the sound booth.
It would be pivotal.
Are we going to ask questionsof Michael?
Yes, so kind of like the Mavsgame, alan.
(02:35):
So, alan, I heard about thisgreat story on Mavs game.
Yeah, let's not go there shallwe Bob?
Oh, come on, you can't leave thelisteners hanging on that.
There's probably some thatdon't know this.
All right, go Google the matchgame.
And it was in the what?
It was?
A newlywed game, actuallyNewlywed game.
(02:55):
I said that Where's thestrangest place you've made?
Whooping Husband answers That'dbe in the butt, bob.
Nope, the husband answers Hisanswer was in the field.
And then the white comes outand she goes That'd be in the
butt, bob.
There we go, everybody, theDooley Web Game, and that led
(03:16):
like into 70.
This is 70.
So they had to blow them up.
Oh my God, macon Whoopie, yeah,which is the name of the, the
hockey team down in Macon,georgia.
So we have a guest, we do.
Nah, all right, we have a guest.
This is part two, guys, allright, so we're going to work on
the title.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
The first one.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
It seems to be working because we are about 5%
and we've got a huge audience inAustralia, as a matter of fact,
canada, and we've got a hugeaudience in Australia, as a
matter of fact, and I had one ofour old guests actually reach
out to me because he loved thePooper Scooper Will Milliken
episode Is that right?
And he said, man, I want to getthat guy.
(03:56):
What was it about the PooperScooping episode he liked, I
don't know?
With Troy Truin and I, growyour small business out of
Tasmania, not just Australia,but Tasmaniamania, which we have
an open invite to go play golfand stay with.
That's an island, right, I'veheard, and michael's off and one
and michael's over therejumping around take me, take me,
take me, take me.
I'm like, okay, we'll take it.
(04:18):
That's a long flight.
Do we have any more?
Did we have to, uh, put christyin a sound booth and decide if
we want to bring her?
Christy?
It'd be like the reverse pocketout, then Christy in Australia,
all right.
So, guys, if you didn't checkout the last episode, go check
it out.
It's great.
But Christy and Michael, he canplay out here.
And Christy had an incrediblebackground where she helped root
(04:41):
out sex trafficking, humantrafficking, got to see just the
worst of the worst of peopleand actually kept a sense of
humor about it, so much so thatshe just had to go sell real
estate.
And we were in Georgia.
Yeah, connect those dots.
I don't know, I still don'tknow.
But then again I got my ass inthe mechanic on the gym and I'm
just a stupid ass.
You know what I'm saying.
(05:02):
Yeah, all right, thank you,alan.
So Michael is on the hot seat.
Michael DD Play Now.
Usually I say let's have himintroduce himself, and you look
at me and say, hey, who do wehave today?
But today I don't know him aswell as you do, cause you guys
were way, I mean way back, and Imean you're old.
Yeah, so Michael's not nearlyas old as I am, so okay, so all
(05:26):
right.
So, uh, you met him whenautomobiles were around, but
obviously we did.
There were cars, all right.
So why don't you introduce ourguest?
No, just one of my dearestfriends and, um, you know, he's
right up there with cousin Brad,somebody I talked to multiple
times a week and we used to worktogether in enterprise.
(05:47):
We've actually worked togetherin franchising, so two different
organizations.
Somebody I respect tremendously.
Uh, you know, just a highintegrity guy.
Love the way, thanks.
Loves his customer servicephilosophy.
You would too.
And uh, so it's been.
We've gone through a lottogether.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
You know are we talking about me well, oh yeah,
you're here okay yeah, so no,but Michael is somebody again.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
going back to the integrity, just a high integrity
guy met him in the corporateworld.
He's been with three differentcorporate organizations that I
can think of, um very successful.
He can actually speak corporateand do very well in the
corporate game.
But he's apparently got alittle bit of an entrepreneurial
streak as well which you knowtwo of those organizations I
(06:42):
think allowed you to kind of umlean into that a little bit.
And where this podcast is goingto end up is that he has now
left the corporate world to workwith his wife in a small town
and they live in the same houseand they're going to be in
(07:02):
business together.
This is partner, partner,partner partner, partner it is
so wrapped around the axle.
It's going to be interesting tohear about it.
I can't wait to unpack all this.
So, michael, I'm so interestedin the first thing.
First is Alan says did you seethat Alan is now oh, alan's over
(07:22):
there picking daisies.
Alan will be right back.
This bottle of Russell's isalmost empty.
All right, so again, not me.
What do you mean, though?
You take the biggest gulp ofeverybody that was just the next
four.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
You go to the next four and went to the bottom.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I don't know what happened.
Yeah, wasn't me, not me.
By the way, I just want to goon.
I heard saying this is thelongest I've never had Christy
Sandigan to meet.
Then you've been in the sameroom together.
I know.
You know what it's not working.
She is in the sound room behindthe pillows.
You know what?
We're going to go take apicture of this on Instagram.
(07:58):
We're going to put this onInstagram, where Christy is
hiding behind the pillows, bythe way, there's so much work.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I feel like we're like in third grade you sunk my
metal ship.
I feel like I have a fort.
I don't know if our listenerswill quite get this, but I hope
they do.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Pew, pew, pew.
No, you're dead.
I'm not dead, You're dead.
I've got you All right.
Now back to Michael, shall we?
First of all, Alan loves to sayhe's a good collector of people
, but he surrounds himself withgood and interesting people.
I'm pretty sure to surroundyourself with sucky people,
Right?
So I know he's been veryexcited about getting us all
together to do this.
So, Michael, you came out ofschool and you went corporate.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
And what was your first job and what were you
thinking you were going to dowith that first job at college?
Wow, so I chased a girl injacksonville, florida, and
answered an ad in the paper forenterprise rent-a-car and that
was something I remember thebrown rat paper car.
I was like, how do they drive?
You can be, can't see out onthe windshield, gotta be my deal
.
And so yeah, that's what peopleused to ask.
(09:06):
It's the question.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
How do you see out of the corner?
But that's so.
You answered that in thenewspaper.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yes, I went to farms and noble I don't know if that
place is still around.
There are got the Sunday paperin Jacksonville Florida, which
probably 40 or 50 Sunday papersacross the United States.
I picked Jacksonville Floridaand yeah, that's.
I'll get to know.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Allen in a strange way.
So you go to Enterprise, butdid you know the background of
how good they were at findinggood talent and then grooming
that great talent?
Did you have any idea what thatwas?
Or was it just?
Hey, seems like a gig I coulddo.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, so good, fantastic question.
I didn't realize it until thefirst re-interview questions and
I realized I'm not on springbreak here, I'm actually getting
a job and with some highlyskilled, highly competitive,
qualified people and I'm like,okay, I think this is my home.
It was just kind of that deal.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
So you saw that challenge and you went, oh yeah,
right off the bat.
And you went, I'm in.
Oh yeah, you want thischallenge.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
A lot of black people .
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, so you were digging it, so you dug the
culture, you got into it, and soyou start, like they all start
and cause Alan's told them thistoo you were moving cars cars in
a suit, getting your tie suckedinto the vacuum cleaner.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Okay, so it's worse than tie the vacuum cleaner.
We used to have these guyscalled sunshine boys, so there
were retirees.
They would just do nothing butmove cars for us and I watched
one guy get his tie sucked in apaper shredder and it it
literally lifted off the trashcan and stuff towards his neck
and we were all in a tie.
I'd be like unplugged the nextday, so like die, unplug the
(10:44):
next thing.
Were you laughing or concerned?
All the way, a lot of myanswers today will be all the
way.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
That is hilarious.
I mean the mental image of that.
One is right out of officespace, right?
You're thinking, here he goes,he's got the safe in one hand,
the ties get sucked in and itstarted to go to his neck.
You're like, oh my God, noone's going to die, true, no
one's going to die, all right.
So obviously that's sealed inyour brain.
Don't worry, there's counselingfor that.
(11:12):
Actually, I know a great one.
Her name is Christy.
She could help you out withthat.
So, all right, so you keepmoving on.
So obviously you we've talkedabout this and I shouldn't say
it, but let's go back.
You didn't know this, thelisteners don't know this, but
you became very successful withEnterprise and you got the
letter, just like Alan.
How did that go?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Wow.
So we talked about it in thelast episode, a little bit like
the struggle is the way right Ifyou go back to the Stoics right
.
And so I was in Jacksonville,florida, and then left to go to
Atlanta.
It took me to motion that Ididn't get close to family.
(11:51):
I had some family here, familyconcerns, and so that struggle
taught me a lot and maybe, maybethat'll help me in the future,
who knows.
But uh, so I took that tomotion and I worked my way right
back up.
I knew the system like anyother company.
If you know the system, you cando it.
The only differential is howquality the people are.
And so, gosh, I've come back toAtlanta.
(12:13):
This guy, alan, with really bigsize 14 shoes, maybe size 20
shoes, he came in and gotpromoted from Oregon and I was
like I can aspire to be that guy.
That's the guy I want to follow.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I wasn't exactly, you know, that hard to surpass, I
mean mentally.
You know it's like oh, he canget there.
I, oh, please, oh, come on,come on, yeah.
Okay, all right, she's hadenough.
Okay, Christy's coming in Storyof my life.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
I hear a lot of stories about Alan taking
Michael and the crew on like alot of fun excursions and I
don't know fun events that it istrue.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
He's the only person the only person I ever had
Waffle House three times in 24hours.
That is true.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
We worked hard and then, when we did well, we
played office.
So you guys need fun.
Alan and I only have get up.
I want Alan.
You know, if you take a dolphinon your course, maybe you get
to know him.
He's not salty at all, he's notover it.
Did we really get to Waffle's?
Not salty at all, he's stillhe's not over.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Did we really get to Waffle House three times on that
trip?
Yeah and oh, I don't need.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
I don't know, I don't , it was the CFF.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Awards.
Thing that we went to Biloxiright right after 9-11 was this
when we went to the Georgia Techgame.
Yeah, and we started cheeringagainst Georgia Tech and we went
to Waffle House.
I did not.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
And then we had Waffle House before.
How single were you?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I stand, corrected Technically.
I said corrected for theaudience here that's not
watching this.
We went to the Varsity aftertailgating, then to Georgia Tech
, then to Waffle House and thendropped into another Waffle
House in Mississippi.
Wow, so it was a well you canimagine.
Yeah, that must have house inMississippi.
Wow, so it was a well you canimagine yeah, that was a.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
That must've been a fun car to be in.
You'll see, yeah, varsityWaffle House.
And keep the windows rolled up,boys.
Oh, this smells really good.
Oh, Dutch oven Can't say that,All right, let's keep going.
All right, so team building.
So your idol Alan takes you tothe varsity.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
That's a little strong.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I'm a big ass either.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yes, you are Again for the listeners at home don't
picture Alan's ass, but I wouldsay that one of the things that
totally I subscribed to rightafter meeting alan was work for
somebody because you don't wantto disappoint them at the same
time.
That person is probably goingto throw a chair on the court
(14:55):
like bobby knight.
I just know that that couldhappen.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
It never will happen, but that was one of my little
things so so for people unlikeyou, chris, who tend to be just
sort of nice and just kind ofhoping that people do a good job
because they're supposed to,that's exactly right.
Every once in a while.
I hope everybody does it right.
Yeah, I do, and I tell themwhen they're not self-admitted.
It's okay If you tend to be anice and optimistic kind of
(15:21):
person.
Every once in a while you justgot to chuck a chair across the
court like Bobby Knight, just tolet them know that you can't.
So I'm more Bobby Knight thananybody.
I convinced him that, and Ihave four dead trash cans and
one that still sits in my office, just so everybody knows
exactly what I can do to a trashcan.
Yeah, and he's the last metalone that made it Because I
(15:44):
didn't to it for our skin.
Yeah, and he's the last metalone that made it Because our
words didn't make it.
So, yeah, couldn't make it.
But I'll tell you what, thoughI don't think anybody can kick a
trash can for the market Really, trash can Olympics.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I don't think anybody can kick it.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And I still have the welts on my shins to prove that
the car doesn't move when youkick it.
Yeah, but everybody wants to dothat too in the office.
But, but we digress, let's goback to that and and let's talk
about how nice managers do this.
All right.
So, honestly, you had a greatrun.
You said you know enterprise.
Hey, I got to move back toAtlanta.
(16:18):
You move, you meet this awesomeguy over here, the big ass idol
, howdy gal, and you keeprolling and you continue to have
success.
And then when did you decide tosay, all right, I'm done.
Wow, so I had so interested.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
So, yeah, just kick me off the mic if I'm going too
long here.
But so I worked at Enterprisefor a while, mostly working in
South DeKalb, which is kind ofironic, right, and so there's
mostly 90% African-Americanfolks, and God really taught me
patience there.
And so my next gig wasKindercare, learning Centers,
(16:57):
which is not hardcore retail andI worked with 90% females, and
so I think that's like part ofmy path to success is learning
patience, right, learning to bedifferent than you, learning
what it takes to kind of setyour knowledge and your
experience aside and learnsomething new.
And so that's, yeah, that's.
(17:18):
That was the step that kind ofgot me back to.
The next step is when Alan andI reunited the band and
franchising, and, uh, thoseexperiences were fantastic,
really, really, really fantastic.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
All right.
So you left, you did uh, youstayed in South Dakota.
You do gender care, yep, um.
However, somewhere along theline you ended up in Arizona.
Was that a?
Was that a thing?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
No, no it could be.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
I don't know.
I've never heard that story.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I heard 120 kids got busted.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, I'm going to set that one aside.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I think we put a pin in that one.
That's episode three that won'tair yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
All right, thank you, and it's about to get really
juicy.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I'm sure there's 124 proof.
So yeah, I went to Kindercare,partly because they I'm saluting
.
There's a weird thing.
There's a sign conversationgoing on in front of me that I
can't hear.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
You know what the worst part is Is that most
people driving in their carscan't hear that anyway, and all
they hear is this whisper backon bullshit nose.
I thought that was Christy andthen they usually message me and
let me know how bad the songwas, so continuing on.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
So yeah, so Kindercare at the time was
recruiting a bunch of peoplefrom Enterprise and they were
looking to change theenvironment of promoting
teachers to management, tolearning and maybe there's
somebody else that knows thesales culture of business to
consumer a little bit better andso they were changing the
culture of skincare.
So there was oh gosh, I joinedlike seven or eight, one of them
(18:51):
you worked with.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
You had these people move over from enterprise to buy
into a kinder care franchise.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
No, not a franchise, it was a corporate store.
They were all corporate stores.
Oh, we were all area regionalmanagers.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Oh, I did not know that.
Okay, so you even knowinglymoved over to help snotting
those kids.
I remember him telling me hegoes it's kind of the same thing
.
You have the same metrics,except for, instead of our
financials being based on a percar basis, it's a per kid basis
a little bit, yeah, but there'sa huge difference.
(19:25):
Um, I mean, and this is ahorrible story, but like, in one
of the centers there was achild that died, yeah, oh no you
know, and I mean you know, wehave this day in my life we
we've.
We had some horrible thingshappen at enterprise where
people were gunned down in ourvehicles.
I mean, they were the, you know, the official rental car
company of the Flair's Ball inAtlanta and so it was, you know,
(19:48):
it was just all kinds of crazystuff.
But then when he told me thatstory about how I've had a lot
of customer service, difficultphone calls not that that was
tough man, the phone- callsomebody.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Phone calls Not that that was tough.
The phone call somebody passesaway in your center.
It's a.
It's a long day, that's athat's a low life, yep Right.
It is what it is, yep.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah, that's tough, all right.
So, uh, thank you, alan, nowlet's get.
So he came out of it.
So we're out of bourbon and Ihit a bummer.
I'm sorry, but I mean it's a,it's a big deal and I mean it's
it's testament to him that Imean cause I could see in in
enterprise.
I mean we could handle almostanything customer service wise,
(20:29):
but we were still kind of likechipper and oh hey, no problem,
lots of care that you know, thatkind of immense.
You can't have that whensomebody's child just died and
it wasn't because anythinghappened, it was just.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
It was a True, but the common thread was obsessed
over the customer experience.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Oh, here we go, Alan.
Let's obsess over the customerexperience.
No but it's true, because youtalked about that, you know, and
again, your wife who got to seethe worst of the worst and you
had this happen to you andthat's a low light.
I mean, it's tough Anytimesomething tough hits you like
that, but if you think about thecustomer experience, there's
nothing you guys could have doneor prevented.
(21:08):
Potentially, I don't know.
But it's not even getting backNow you have to go after it and
you still need to go solve thatproblem and figure out what the
next steps are.
True, so you go, do all that.
You've worked your kinder care.
I want to keep arcing to findout when did you leave kinder
care?
Speaker 3 (21:28):
hold on before you get there.
I've been saying one thing holdon one minute michael, I'm
gonna use that.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
That's gonna be the name of this.
Hold on, hold on one minute,hold on one minute.
I have to say something.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
But Michael had talked about, like now, that he
works with primarily women andthat was when him and I met and
that was a big conversation thatwe had because I worked with
mostly men and at the time hewas working with mostly women.
And it was an interestingdiscussion that we had actually
when we met Because we were likeI think that helps us get along
(21:59):
.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
That was what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Because he was used to dealing with women.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
And you're still harder than the first time and
I'm just.
It's just an interestingdynamic.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Uh, it was an interesting time in our lives,
for us to meet each other when,the where we were in our lives
at the time and what, whatprofessional position we were in
our lives as well.
That was interesting, but yeah,okay, I digress.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
No, you did not digress.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
So you know what I love and we're gonna we're gonna
hold that one later.
Uh is that you're the hardestone I've ever worked with you.
You went into business with me,so let's continue on.
This is the Massacism Massacreepisode.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
We will bring it home .
Speaker 1 (22:42):
We're going to bring this all home.
It's going to be like how I metyour mother.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
We're going to bring it all home.
He doesn't know that.
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Thank you.
All right, oh, wow, beautiful,let's continue Back.
Oh, wow, beautiful.
Let's continue Back to thekinder care and let's get off
the killing kids.
Well, it's tough.
I mean, you're talking abouttrustedtoolboxcom for all your
hate mail, right there.
Let me tell you about this.
And especially if you think thedrywall's bad, just wait,
(23:15):
because I've had people act likeI killed their kid over bad
drywall jobs.
You're just leaning into this,aren't you?
I am, so let's continue on.
All right, back to Kinder Care.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Let's move Come on Ben.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
How about drywalling your kitten in the wall?
That was a kid's story, kid'sstory.
All right, another episode Okay.
So, another episode, okay.
So you lead Kindercare at Nawa.
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Well.
So we got the band backtogether.
So I went into franchising withBig Al, which is so interesting
because every company I workedfor really had strong brand
standards.
Didn't really know what thatmeant until I joined the
franchising.
What that you know.
Everybody has to work to abrand standard and you have to
enforce that.
That was fun, except withemployees.
(24:02):
You could hire them, you couldfire them, you could promote
them, you could demote them, youcould bonus them, you could dot
pay and with franchisees, asAlan explained to me rather
quickly, you got influence.
And so that was a very, veryinteresting step in my life how
to influence people that I knewhow to do but didn't rely on.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Because you couldn't control, you couldn't command to
control.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Again back to.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Christy and her background.
You know military.
You get an order, you do not.
Christy had a gun.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
What's the order for that.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Christy still has a gun.
I love that might have a goodmother.
Right now she kind of does.
Did you hear that?
I know I got.
I got a little nervous already.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
You just went over her everyday carry.
It's like a 45 compact andmetal straw.
But let's move on.
Michael actually made aheadboard.
Did you not make that headboard?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yes, with the secret compartment for both our guns.
For both our guns by the bed.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Where you sleep.
Yes, yeah, let's go back realquick.
Why Chris doesn't have any gunsin his house?
Because I would not be thefirst one to use them.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
And I'm not putting the other one.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
There is no way I'm putting it anywhere near the
other one.
I dare you Do you want to tellthe story about the unfortunate
Amazon delivery guy.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
No.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
First of all, this segment is about me.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Chrissy and second of all.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Chrissy got in a lot of trouble Because I was too
honest.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
He did ask if he wanted some water, Did his arm
heal.
Fuck you wouldn't it.
But water solves everything.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Alright, we got the band back together.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
And you're right.
People say, hey, I'm going togo buy a business.
I'm going to go buy a business.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I'm going to go buy a business.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
The first time I've been flipped off by somebody
other than Chris on this podcastand I hate doing this.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I did flip Chris.
No, chris did.
Oh, and of course she diddouble bird.
Don't I just double bird you?
Speaker 1 (26:09):
That's three birds so far.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yep One stone.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Okay, that's a great one, alright, let's go.
So franchising, you realize?
Now I'm dealing with SouthDakota, atlanta.
I'm dealing with women, now I'mdealing with franchisees.
Clearly, I hate myself.
I don't like working withpeople that are fun to work with
, because franchisees they soundso happy, they're like oh yes,
(26:34):
I can't wait to do this, oh, I'mgoing to do this, and you go
hey, you're not doing it theright way.
Oh, yeah, but I'm so muchsmarter than you.
Yeah, okay, but I'm not gettingthe results I want.
So can I have my money back?
I want to just interject.
I think what Michael's pointwas is that he had a lot of
experience working with peoplewho were not like him and, as a
(26:57):
result, he had to learn to takea step back and listen to people
and hear where they're comingfrom, and it it helped him be
better at what he was doing.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
A thousand percent.
I mean you got to thank you, Iwant to put the knowledge.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, make sure we coming, or or.
Or he could grab his gun, orBrad Christie's gun, I don't
somebody's, I mean.
Or he could grab his gun, orGreg Christie's gun, I don't
know.
Somebody's gun I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Let's go, can you tell me I'm pretty speak at this
point.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
But yeah, no absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
So, yeah, we got the band back together.
We're working at our firstfranchise together, or as a
franchise war, Sorry, boo-boo.
And so that's where I cut myteeth in franchising.
And so it was interesting, like, why did I get into it?
I wanted to work with you,obviously.
That was cool.
It didn't work Saturdays andSundays.
That was very good.
(27:48):
We had so much fun.
We had a ton of fun.
But the best story of that is Itold my boss, which I still
call her boss, told my boss,which I still call her boss Can
I mention her name?
I won't, boss, fantastic.
She was like hey, when do youwant to start?
I'm like well, I've got avacation plan.
Do you mind if I take thevacation somewhere in the middle
of my first three months?
She's like yeah, not a problem,I'll shoot an email of the
(28:10):
dates.
Great, my first day at work.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
She's like hey, where are those dates you're taking
off?
I'm like 27 days in June, Tripto Africa.
To what Son are you shitting meright now as a small business
owner when you hire a realestate agent to work on an EQ?
Oh, I see the questions.
What'd you learn from that?
Yeah.
And when you say millennial, Idon't know.
Take 27 days off.
Yeah, you need 2.7 days.
Yeah.
And when you say millennial, Idon't know, take 27 days off, oh
(28:39):
yeah.
You need 2.7.
Yeah, yeah, and we still laughabout that.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
But like, hey, I sent you an email and you approved
it.
You didn't read it, oops, sowow, so that's where we went.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
All right, so we keep going that way.
You work in the franchisingworld, you work in another bunch
of franchising concepts,continuing serving the skills
figuring out what's going on.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
So I left that organization.
I went to an organization thatactually puts people in a
position to make career options,career choices, and it was a
franchising concept aroundfranchising.
In a weird way, there arepeople that hate their boss,
hate their job, want more money,want more time off that laid
(29:21):
off, and so our franchisingconcept was essentially, how do
we be career advocates for themand help them make choices in a
coaching way, which wasfantastic, right up my alley.
How do we coach people to makethe best choice?
And often enough, that choicewas franchising.
Sometimes it was getting hookedup with a recruiter, sometimes
it was staying in their job,sometimes they could find their
own job.
Sometimes it was getting hookedup with a recruiter, sometimes
it was staying in their job,sometimes they could find their
own job.
Sometimes it was yeah, juststop working because you're
(29:44):
where you need to be.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It must have been super rewarding for you to be
able to do that at the time.
I mean with all your recruits,it's certainly a state test,
yeah, and of course you can seeyour motivation Again.
It's not about just trying toget that whole money buck and
getting the franchise consultingsee if they get placed, but
you're trying to help somebodyreally truly find a good place
absolutely, absolutely and andthat was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
And you know I'm gonna try to connect the dots
here back to the last episode,but you know when, when christy
made that big change, when Imade the big change, one of the
things that we looked at isgoals are super important and
you know, I don't know ifChrissy realized that, but when
we talked about she talks aboutmaking more money, it was about
(30:28):
her having self-worth.
It was also what is the moneygoing to do for her?
Right, it's going to have hermove to a mountain town.
It was going to have her retireearly.
It was going to have her retireearly.
It was going to have herprovide college for the kids.
It was more about the purposeof the money than actually the
money.
That was one of the things thatworking you coach people.
The goals are probably the mostimportant thing.
(30:49):
That will really pull youthrough difficult times and
it'll pull you towards greattimes.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
That's a great, honestly, man.
That is deep thought rightthere and I'm going to make it
undeep real quick.
But it's like Nick Saban whenhe got his teams together at
Alabama, which I hate, alabama.
But you've got to respect it.
You've got to respect this isthat he did not say gentlemen,
our goal this year is to win thenational championship.
(31:16):
Never, ever, said that ever.
He always talks about yourgoals, your intermediate goals,
your short-term goals, becausethat's the other thing.
I'm training another guy at myoffice in sales and I'm like,
hey, look, these are theestimates you've got to write.
I said you're going to writethem down in a piece of paper.
I said when you write one andsend it, you check the box.
(31:36):
I said, and when you check fourof those five, then we're done.
I said, and you're going tofeel better about yourself.
And then what's that's going todo?
What that's going to do is ahundred percent, commission guy,
at the end of the month you'regoing to make more money.
I said, but you can't sit thereand go oh, I can't make money,
oh, I gotta make money.
Oh, it's all about the moneywhen you guys don't know.
It's about returning that phonecall.
It's about doing that, showingus that in way that I was
(31:57):
supposed to.
It's about about doing thenetworking, about taking those
that time throughout the week tobuild that business and do the
business development goals.
I love that why?
Yeah, yeah, all right, where doyou want to go?
I know where I want to go, so Iwant to fast forward to this.
So you do that.
Michael, you know enough aboutme, let's talk more about me
(32:20):
please.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
It was more about less me and more him.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
You know what, Michael?
I have an opening as a podcastguest host.
You know what?
Hey, Michael, why don't youcome golf on my golf course here
?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
We have to go home on the way home between you and me
.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Uh, you're definitely golfing here and christy's
invited.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
She's a dirty handicap not too bad.
Yeah, let's see what she's.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Any money on the court it's just going to be your
court.
There's never a fourth.
We always play three, I alwaysplay three, I don't know.
I always think three people.
Okay, fine, um fine, all right,so we'll come to the end.
I want to talk about this.
So you've decided to make itultimately yeah, a great partner
.
Clearly you guys people have somuch.
You can see, the chemistry isthere, and now you guys are
(33:04):
going to start a real estateagency in Blue Ridge, georgia.
So let's go back to it.
Plug it again.
This is the second episode TrueBlue Mountain, grim.
We got it right, thank you, Ijust wanted to make sure we had
it right.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
I called the phone number.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
So you're jumping in.
You're like you know what, I'mgoing to get it, and now what?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I don't know if I can know, I'm going to backtrack a
little bit.
Why did we do it Like backpedalyou a little bit?
Why did we do it?
Like, honestly, we sat downabout a year ago and we're like,
what do we really want to do?
Like we, we've always beensuccessful, land goals in front
of us.
Like we, we've paid off ourdebt and we're going to build a
house and we're going to do ahouse we turn into near the BV.
Then we're going to go to themountains no goals.
And it was a period of timewhen we were just lost, right,
(33:52):
it was like, well, we've goteverything we want.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
I had to become a real estate agent.
Mom, you got it.
Yeah, not like big goals.
Like that was a survival goal.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
It was a survival goal.
And then we're like but youknow what?
We want more, and so we set itdown, and it was like the
corporate job just didn'tfulfill the goals.
Not from income, not from alifestyle, wealth equity we just
didn't get what we reallyneeded.
And so I've been coachingpeople into entrepreneurship for
five and a half years.
I think I need to do it.
(34:24):
My goals were that thick and sothe corporate world just didn't
do it.
It's great for some people.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
You're making a leap for the first time in your life.
You're making a leap for thefirst time and you're in your
life, you're being lying blindly, right.
So this is tough right, becausewho had healthcare?
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Well, that's my project for next week.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Oh episode 3.4 actually, yeah, actually, we got
a big guy.
We've had a mom right now.
Yeah, I use it.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
So I told my dog.
Yeah, yeah I think got a guy inblue Richard.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yeah, we do, do that Broker in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
We'll figure it out.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I know they're hip nation.
Hip nation, is it yeah?
Speaker 2 (34:59):
I listened to that episode.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, with Brian Hill Amazing, but he blew the roof
off of healthcare and I mean,the more he's going to get.
You did it right.
Uh, I did, I'm on it, yeah, andI will tell you, my whole
family's on it.
And, uh, sydney, who's innashville, north carolina, so
there's a primary care up theretoo, nice.
Yeah, that just happened.
But anyway, let's go back toyou.
(35:21):
So you're, you guys are here,we go, so you, you're taking the
lead.
Do you feel like you have asafety net?
Do you feel like you have anopt-out or do you feel like this
is it?
Man Chit's in the middle, allin.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Let's see.
So all the ships were burned.
I would say, right, we have noplan B.
We're in trouble with no plan B, right?
No backup plans.
We have to make this one work,and certainly there could be a
plan B, and there's certainly.
We've just never reallydiscussed it as like we could do
this.
This has to work.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Well, we're all in.
I mean we could sell everythingand move back to Phoenix and
start over.
Why?
I mean, yeah, but that's not.
We'd love it.
It doesn't fulfill our why Imean yeah, it doesn't fulfill
our, why, like, as far as movingforward, this is our all in.
We're all in, we don't have abackup.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Let me ask you a different question.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
We could go back.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
So right, so I get, we got the.
We can go back.
Um, does that make you feelbetter, that you know you could
always fall back, or do you feellike, at this stage in life,
even if everything just goes tototal shit?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
we know we can pay our bills and we have a place to
live.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yeah, that part.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
I mean that part to me at least, I know we wouldn't
be like homeless and not havebut I think, most importantly,
christy is like where we want togo is so important to us, like
our why is so defined, our goalis so defined, Like when we
think about it.
I know what that looks like, Iknow what that tastes like, I
know what that feels like.
It's so compelling, it's notfulfilling to think about going
(36:49):
back.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
It's just not fulfilling.
Telling it's not fulfilling, tothink about going back, it's
just not fulfilling.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
The only safety net is that we wouldn't be homeless,
but it's not a fulfilling thingPeople have asked me this too,
because when I took the leap andI jumped and Alan did the same,
I said you know what?
What made me feel better isthat I was 37 and even if it
totally freaking failed, I couldpick myself back up and go find
(37:15):
a job at 42 or 40.
Um, now here I am, um, a lotolder than that, 17.
Way older, way older.
So I I'm I'm unemployable atthis point.
You look pretty good.
Thank you for 72.
So, um, the point is, is thatnow you know when I look at it
and go, you know failure is notan option.
(37:36):
You know you look back on thatmission.
I love spades, by the way, so Iwant you to get to that, but I
just did that help you?
Or was that never even part ofyour thought process?
Speaker 3 (37:47):
I mean, there is a Walmart in Blue Ridge.
I could be a breeder.
I've been to that.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Walmart.
I've been to that Walmart.
I've never seen so many pajamasthat she'd not be able to.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
I saw that here in Johns Creek.
It is what it is.
Let's move along with thatconversation.
No, I honestly think there's noturning back.
I can't trade dollars for fun.
We both need to determine howmuch we need to work, how much
money we need to make where wework, how we work to find our
(38:21):
own success, and I think that iscompelling.
That in itself is compelling,let alone to the personal goals
we have.
Like, I just couldn't thinkabout going back to being
limited.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
No, I love where you guys are going and I think uh up
in that area is great, so talkto us about so you've jumped in.
What have you done to ignitethe group?
What are we doing?
What are you doing to get this?
Uh, so you've got a four-personteam you are two of.
We got two of the four personteam up, the yeah yeah yeah,
yeah, blue bound group yeah, noalan alan no, alan, alan, alan.
(38:53):
Steve Whitpaw Alan.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
And so it's very interesting.
So, like I'm an ops guy and soeasily it's how do we develop
the operational procedures forthe company?
It's, everybody knows thatwe're going to do that.
We're going to be obsessedthrough the client experience.
I mentioned that I feel alittle bit like herding cats in
the nicest way possible, becausewe have people that I Mean.
Every year she has a go, yeah,well enough, and everybody on
(39:18):
our team has a GSD hat.
We get shit done and right andbut everybody that's been
successful on our team hasmuscled it.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
What a great line, right They'd must.
Yes, yeah, I'm gonna actuallyget that bad.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
I'm going to actually get that badge.
I'm going to put that next tomy.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Phoenix PD.
A little red meat to the host.
Not going to lie, I put thePhoenix PD and the GSD on the
fleets from now on and a nicetrucker hat too.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
You can't just do like a.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
You know, I should get you guys some merch.
I'll get you guys merch.
We got some great trucker hats.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Yeah, but you know, honestly, it's like herding cats
a little bit, but at the sametime it's so fulfilling because
people that are really good atwhat they do could forget about
operations An incredible, greatpoint.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
That's why I'm just dying, because Christy's over
there rolling her eyes.
I'm in the sales.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
She is not.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
She's batting her eyelashes.
You know what she's saying.
She goes Michael, you're soawesome.
You're right, you are my bigidol.
Anyway, but the operationalprocess, that's what creates
that great customer experience.
Right, it's that repeatableprocess that you know that when
you go to your group for atransaction, you're going to get
this, this and this, and at theend, you're going to get the
(40:31):
outcome.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Of course it was Not this, this and this, and at the
end you're going to get theoutcome it's a little garbage
personality.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Sorry, of course, it was Not the process at all.
No, it is this must be so muchfun.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Listen, we banter all day.
It makes us go to sleep well atnight.
There's nothing left over atthat point.
But we obsess over theoperational process so that I'll
get lost to it.
It's like operational processso that I'll get lost to it,
cause, like Christie's battingher out, let's just let me again
.
She's like I'm so pretty overhere, so, but um no, still the
people that do what they need todo like do it at a high level,
(41:03):
and when you have good processes, the only the only mistake you
can have is have wrong people inyour group.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Yeah, no, no-transcript and call you back
(41:43):
for more work and in your case,transactions aren't as quickly
done and transact as you guys.
But the process is so importantand I think that's the big
differentiator.
A lot of people will go well,I'm going to go with her because
she's in my church, or I'mgoing to go with him because my
son said that he knows what sheis doing.
(42:03):
This is the biggest value moveFor a lot of us.
This is our biggest personalinvestment.
Now I don't know what'shappened in Blue Ridge, if it's
their second homes or firsthomes, but I got to believe
there's still a pretty bigtransaction.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
I don't think it matters if it's your first home
or second home.
It's still a huge process.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Yeah, it's a lot of money, A thousand percent.
And our process is so funny.
Our processes are around us,what's convenient for us, what's
good for us.
But then in person We've talkedabout that so much how do we
change the sales culture,language from it's a deal to hey
, we helped the family achieve agoal?
What's your goal for it?
You want to sell 200 ouncesnext year?
(42:44):
No, we want to have 200families happy Little things
like that, that process alone ofbeing client-focused rather
than us-focused.
And it's funny.
Last night we sat at a tablewith seven other realtors.
All of them had the samephilosophy they all wanted to
invest in Blue Ridge.
(43:05):
It was all about the client, itwas all about the customer.
It wasn't about what's good forthem.
So how do you differentiate?
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Right, because I would say, if you had seven
others that weren't with you,that were there, I know I would
They'd be in a ditch.
They would be.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
There's no way they'd get out of that place.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
There's no way to get out of that place alive.
I mean, I don't have a gun, butI have other words You've got
to be consistent.
Consistency.
But how are you?
Are you doing any advertising?
Speaker 3 (43:33):
Not yet but I think heavy, heavy referrals and I
think it's the honesty and thedirect client experience and the
honesty that we're in, it'svery heavy referral right now.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
Yeah, it's very interesting how many of our
clients come from other clients,like, for instance, the police
officer that you were talkingabout, kim right, she's referred
.
As for clients, she trusts you,she trusts that other law
enforcement people are going tofeel like, oh, they're not going
to get hanky, they're reallycomfortable with our experience.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
So, Alan, this is where we're going to help them.
Uh-oh, that's right.
Referrals are not the way togrow your business.
While it is a great component,there are other things we need
to do, right.
So let's do some other things.
So you just said I'm interestedin the police department and I
give back, and so I happen toknow the Blue Ridge Police
Department for totally differentreasons.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
How fast were you going?
Now that I know, now that Iknow I wouldn't get out of that
one?
But how about a luncheon forthe blue right, Doing things and
giving back, but then up therein a small town community, what
are ways you guys couldadvertise that would help other
people think about it?
Because I had a lot of singlehandymen ago.
Chris, I'm just built onreferrals.
(44:52):
I'm like, listen, bro, you canonly do so many friends and
family and eventually,especially in tough times, you
need to have that bigger base,and so that's why I've always
put 4% into advertising here inAtlanta.
But again, I'm always runningthis roll call.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
What did you do yesterday Christy Yesterday?
Oh my God, You're so good on aChristy yesterday oh my god so
good on a podcast.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
No, hey, christy you don't when they're looking at
you.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
We spent the entire day right nice it was a long day
it's a long day yesterday, andso eventually people are like
why are you here?
We're just helping you.
Then the questions ask morequestions, ask more questions
asked and eventually they'relike what do you do?
Oh, we're with Keller Williamsand this is our day of giving.
(45:42):
This is what we're doing.
We don't force it, we justpeople will ask questions.
You show up, they want to knowwhy you're always present.
They want to know why you'realways volunteering.
People ask questions.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
Yeah, back to the other one.
I've heard this great phrasecalled the elephant leg hug.
You never said elephant to me.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
I never did say elephant.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
I always use leg hug, but I have used that line some
of the time.
But you're right, you'resitting there and they go.
Why are you here?
Oh well, as a matter of fact,I'm a real estate agent, so can
I hope you saw your house?
Goodbye.
That's like LinkedIn.
Those messages will be all good.
They say, hey, do you need helpwith your digital media?
Hey, I just really enjoyed yourpodcast episode with XYZ.
(46:21):
I would like to know if youneed to help with your finances.
I'm like come on, man.
I mean, come on, yeah, I can dothat.
That's where a personalconnection comes in Real estate
agents, totally a personalconnection comes in Real estate
agents totally a personalconnection, but in a small town.
I was interested because Ithink a lot of people need to
know what can you do in a smalltown to move the needle?
Besides the networking, becausewhat you guys are doing, that's
(46:43):
a lot of personal time andsweat equity.
What are some other things wecould be doing?
Speaker 3 (46:48):
Well, most of our I would say a huge portion of our
clients are people from out oftown.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
People that are buying a second home or a
vacation home For the half-packs.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
How do the people from Florida know about you?
Speaker 3 (47:04):
Yeah, I spend a lot of time on social media.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Yep, yep.
We reach out to other realestate teams in Florida With
real accounts.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
Yeah, with real accounts.
Really, that was a whole notherthing that was extremely
traumatic for me to switch fromall of my fake undercover names
to my real name.
We didn't even get into that.
I had nightmares for like amonth.
I'm having to like put my realname on social media.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
It's just as simple as, like your instincts, we
didn't get into this but likethe four or five things you've
learned as a police officerundercover.
So Christie goes to like aKeller Williams training there's
like a hundred agents and sawonline training.
She started writing down theirnames find out what offices that
work that and then she spentthe next day just call them.
Hey, I saw you in the trainingyesterday.
You have any clients want towork in the mountains, want to
(47:50):
bingo?
And so you just like you'reinstinctively, you just figured
out how to like skip, trace thatjob to that conclusion.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Yeah, I love this.
I think, as you guys move onagain on the air counseling, we
talked about doing somethinglike this.
If it were me and I were themand I'm trying to coach him I'm
going to coach him right now Iwould say I love what you guys
are doing.
Networking, However, I stilllike the social media presence.
I like the hashtags going haveyou thought about Vacation Blue
(48:16):
Ridge?
And then here's the other thingI do I hijack all the Vacation
Blue Ridge rental things and youstart doing the anti on that
and that's the campaigns thatwork back.
I'm talking in code, but if youwant to know more about what
I'm talking about, Chris atthetrusttoolboxcom because I
can't code it out becauseGoogle's listening, All right,
(48:37):
Google.
We are so confused right now.
No, I know, but this is whatthey they.
They don't want to they.
They got me, they got me.
I love how you guys are gettingback in there.
Great community, I think agreat.
Again.
It's a small community, butit's a small community where a
big community is coming involved.
But the big community must bepart of the small community,
(48:59):
isn't that an interesting littledynamic?
And so that's like vacationtowns that people see, seaports
on the Gulf and everywherearound the nation.
Here we go, alan.
Let's go to the final twoquestions.
Oh, and I can't wait to hearMichael's answer on this.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Oh boy, oh boy.
Finally, can we just ask one?
I need to ask one question ofAlan.
I know we need to wrap this up.
Did you do the one-man bobsledtoday?
No, I never did.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
Does Chris don't go on, man bobsled.
No, I don't think he does.
Okay, I want to know.
No, no, no, no, no no no, no,no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
no no, no, no, no, no, no, no nono, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, nono no, no, no, no no no, no, no,
(49:49):
no.
Hey guys, go listen.
Man push this thing out.
Man, do me a favor, do Alan afavor.
We all want to hear from him.
Alan needs Alan a favor to buy abuilding.
Anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
What are your two questions?
Bring it.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
We already asked the book.
We've already asked about afavorite feature of their home.
So we know that.
But what we really want to knowis that we're so interested in
the customer experience.
We talked about it becausewe're kind of customer
experience freaks.
Are you kidding me right now?
Yes, we are.
So, Michael, no, I'm scared.
What is a customer service atPeebham yours when you are the
(50:28):
customer?
I've been doing the same thingand you get to get to because we
did not let a person answer ata restaurant.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
The general manager comes up to you and says the
food's good, right, a lot ofchoices there.
And then you know he's lookingat the next table, like how many
tables do I have to get done inthe next hour?
That's crazy.
But the number one at arestaurant is do not touch my
plate without asking.
I cannot stand somebody grab myplate and they have it at chest
(51:01):
level and they're like you'redone, right?
Speaker 1 (51:03):
I'm like I don't like .
So, I don't like that.
And a little secret throughthis entire episode we didn't
talk about this.
But Michael is an excellentchef.
Right, he is.
And I know, I know, alan, youlove to cook and I do too, and
so you've even said he'sexcellent.
He's an excellent chef, which II trust Alan's judgment
(51:24):
completely.
So, obviously, the restaurant,it's always an easy one for us
to use, but I use the restaurantanalogy so often, even in
homework, homework, homeworkexperiences, because we're
contractors, we're allowed to bedirty, we're allowed to be late
, we're allowed to, you knowsmoke and you know kick our
cigarette and put it on yourhardwood floors and then kick
your dog, and you still kind oflike us because you're like, ah
(51:45):
well, well, alan won't like youparticularly, right, I know Alan
wouldn't love you so, but inrestaurants you've got to be on
point.
If you want to deliver thatservice, you've got to be on
point.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
This man is French and he wants to soff up every
last bit of sauce on his platewith whatever bread went over.
And if you take a plate beforeit completely leaks clean, he
will chop your hands, Love it.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
It's true that he leads in with a true that.
All right, alan, you ready?
Yeah, I want a DIY nightmarestory Now.
Alan and I just don't wantregular run of the mill.
We want Emergency services.
What?
Dismemberment, dismemberment.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
Some sort of squirting of bodily fluid,
mostly blood.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Free Fire, cool Water , flo Four Water.
Flood something for me.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
Kill something, rip your finger off we might have
squirting and water availablehere on this one Shoot, god dang
.
So my daughter's about to beborn.
I thought it would be fantasticand soft oh shit, I can't
believe I'm not going to sayborn.
I thought it would be likefantastic to install oh shit, I
(52:58):
can't believe I'm not going tosay this.
It's so stupid.
I'm going to install one ofthose wire racks right above the
washer dryer.
It's a simple project A coupleof anchors ahead and then on the
side, and so I'm like I'll getthe stud finder out, I'll make
sure my studs are wrapped.
I want to get water pipes.
That's the hot water, coldwater.
Where the washer's at Bingo Gotthat nailed, go to the side
walls.
I'm like let's go find a stud.
(53:19):
There can't be any water thereright.
Throw a screw in on theexterior wall that faces outside
and wow, that's weird.
Like which Cruz starts weeping.
So I back it out and I got astream of water from one side of
the laundry room hitting theother side of the laundry room.
Speaker 1 (53:40):
I'm not laughing with .
I'm laughing, not laughing at.
I'm laughing with yes.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
And I'm like that's weird.
And so like, well, how do I fixthis?
So we're like, well, screw itback in.
And so I did.
I screwed it back in to stopthe water.
And then I called a plumber andhe's like, oh, it's not good.
And I'm like, well, no, it'ssurely not good, it's water.
He's like, no, your entireexterior wall is not insulated.
I'm like, oh, I was due for aflood anyways.
(54:07):
That pipe was going to freezeand so there's no insulation at
all.
But it turned out to be thepipes that fend the upstairs
back room.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
I didn't even think they could do that.
Number one.
Smartest thing he did was putit back in.
Yes, you don't realize that.
So when you shoot a nailthrough your finger, leave it
Trust me.
Speaker 2 (54:30):
I have a whole bunch of those too.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
I have a whole bunch of nails, the hand, the hand
clamps right, the hand clampnever works, but when you screw
a pipe it hit it and you pull itback out and start going, put
it right back in and callsomebody because it's holding it
for as long as it can.
I can't tell you how many nailsand screws I've seen that have
rusted over time and people arelike who knew?
I'm like I know, you didn'tknow at the time, but you know
(54:53):
20, 20 years later, don't you?
Yeah, you, that's awesome.
Guys, we learned somethingtoday.
We have learned a lot aboutgetting into real estate.
No, you've learned a lot aboutwhat it takes to get out of the
corporate world.
You sat there and taughteverybody about how smart you
were being in the corporateworld and then you get out and
you said you know what?
Watch this because I'm about togo.
(55:14):
Prove you all that I can knowhow to do it.
So get out there and keep doingit.
Let's make it happen.
We got to go.
We're going to be back nextweek.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the Small Business
Safari.
Remember, your positiveattitude will help you achieve
that higher altitude you'relooking for in a wild world of
small business ownership higheraltitude you're looking for in a
wild world of small businessownership.
(55:34):
And until next time, make it agreat day.
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