July 16, 2025 • 31 mins
Prepare for a wild ride as Mike McDaniel of National Property Inspections (NPI) Oklahoma City, reveals some of the most ridiculous and memorable inspections he's encountered, including houses with rattlesnakes, an entire church in the backyard, and extreme hoarder situations. Beyond the bizarre, Mike offers invaluable advice for anyone at a career crossroads, emphasizing the importance of doing your homework and not being scared to jump into a new venture. He also delves into the critical role of investing in a good marketing firm for business growth, detailing how NPI's amazing marketing team tailors strategies to individual personalities.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:01):
you
SPEAKER_00 (00:11):
should next time you're doing a sound check run
some hildegard von bingen
SPEAKER_02 (00:15):
oh yeah we use that yeah oh yeah to to check like
low frequency stuff
SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
so hello everyone welcome good morning garrett how
are we We, Mike, have beensurprising our guests by
starting the podcast becausewe're silly.
So I've just been hitting recordthe last few episodes and we're
goofy, goosey ganders over here.
(00:45):
Welcome, welcome.
We have Mike.
You know what, Mike?
I actually don't know if Iremember your last name.
SPEAKER_02 (00:52):
It's McDaniel.
SPEAKER_00 (00:53):
McDaniel.
Mike McDaniel.
To my shame, I did not remember.
That's all right.
It's early.
That's why my name is Garrett.
My name is Robert the Bruce.
Here we go again.
Here we go again.
And of course, we have theinfamous Nolan with us this
(01:13):
morning.
Don't bother, we're infamoustoday.
But Mike, so happy to have you.
Thank you for being on thepodcast.
Yeah, you're welcome.
This is actually our second timehaving Mike.
Technical difficulties.
Stand by.
Yep.
If you have been thinking toyourself after hearing that, I
haven't heard Mike on thepodcast before.
That's correct.
That is correct.
(01:35):
We totally botched the audio thelast time.
We fixed it.
Everything's better now.
We think- The technology works.
Yep.
So take two, action.
Voila.
Mike, tell us about yourself.
Who are you?
What do you do?
And give us like just a fun factabout yourself.
SPEAKER_02 (01:57):
So I'm Mike McDaniel.
I am- The lead inspector andmarket development person for
national property inspectionsfor Oklahoma City.
We have a multi-inspector firm.
(02:17):
There's three of us.
And we service Oklahoma City andthe southwest part of the state,
like Lawton, Fort Sill, youknow, Duncan, Marlowe,
Chickasha, and everything inbetween.
So...
Yeah, it's very busy.
SPEAKER_00 (02:36):
And this is fairly new with the natural property
inspection.
But you're not new to the gameat all.
No, not at all.
You've been doing it for a long
SPEAKER_02 (02:49):
time.
So I spent the last 28 years inthe oil and gas industry.
I hit that mark where I couldretire, and I did.
And, you know, through...
extracurricular activities.
You know, I've known Mark for awhile and.
SPEAKER_00 (03:08):
And Mark is your partner.
SPEAKER_02 (03:10):
Mark's the partner.
Um, and Dustin, we're allpartners really.
I mean, you know, it, it makes ateam, it takes a team to, to, to
make this crazy thing go around.
So, um, it's more like threebrothers, uh, working together
and, you know, wrestling in thedirt after it all said and done
(03:33):
that way we can figure out whowas right and who's wrong.
Yeah.
So that's fair.
It's, it's really a lot of fun.
Um, being a part of this is, youknow, definitely, uh, in the
long run was, is going to be avery good move for all of us.
So, um, you know, Being out onyour own, and you guys know how
(03:57):
that is, it's a little taxingsometimes.
But coming into this MPI family,you've got support, you've got
marketing folks, you've gotcoaches, you've got all of this
stuff at your fingertips nowthat makes life a little bit
(04:19):
easier.
SPEAKER_00 (04:21):
Sure.
Well, I...
I love that there's people outthere doing exactly what you do
because when I was buying myfirst home, it was, I mean, I
was...
I had no idea what I was doing.
(04:42):
That's a good way to put it.
And so there's a lot to learnwhen you're buying a house.
And when you can bring in aninspector who can tell you
exactly, hey, here's some thingsyou need to pay attention to
before you pull the trigger onthis property, gives you a
little bit of extra peace andassurance that you're not making
(05:03):
a terrible life decision.
Yeah.
On something very
SPEAKER_02 (05:07):
expensive.
One of the things we prideourselves on is making it not
scary.
Because I have a friend of minethat has a saying, and I've kind
of latched onto it.
(05:28):
Imperfect houses are built byimperfect people.
People are going to miss things.
People are going to...
have off days, you know, andthat's why we're there to find
it.
As good or as bad as a homemight be, they're typically not
(05:48):
that bad.
And when you look at a homeinspection report, I mean, it
can scare, you know, thebiggest, baddest, you know,
investor on the planet.
But we pride ourselves on, youknow, being impartial and really
being thorough on it.
(06:09):
And as we go through thosereports with our clients and
realtors and stuff like that isto make it not scary, but state
the facts.
You know, a lot of people are inthis industry are just kind of
matter of fact, and what it isis what it is.
(06:30):
We take the time to, you know,set and talk and go through
reports and, you know, make surethat, you know, you, you as a,
as a buyer understand whatyou're, what you're purchasing.
Um, so, you know, it's a littledifferent with us.
(06:51):
Um, we kind of feel like we'regoing above and beyond in some
of this stuff and for the rightreasons.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (07:00):
So, um, Which is really important inside of an
industry like, you know,properties in general.
It's just a huge, hugeinvestment.
But I do have to digress becausethere was a bit of conversation
the last time that we gottogether.
And I won't ask you for thespecific story that we talked
(07:23):
about, but I will ask you, doyou have any fun inspections
that you have done?
And by fun, do I mean,ridiculous.
He's like, what can I share on apodcast?
Yeah,
SPEAKER_02 (07:44):
because I'm going to share some of it here in a
little bit.
You know, we work down in Lawtonand Oklahoma City, and you guys
know how the southwest part ofthe state is.
What's down there?
Rattlesnakes.
Yes.
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (08:04):
That's a trick question, Mike.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
SPEAKER_02 (08:10):
I hurried up and answered that question for
myself.
I was about to say Texans.
Yeah.
Don't start with that either.
Inevitably, Dustin.
for whatever reason, I don'tknow if he's not living right or
what, but that dude finds morerattlesnakes and sends them to
(08:30):
Mark and says, look what Ifound, you know, um, Mark, the
other day we were talking andwhen he first got into this, uh,
you know, Mark was a firecaptain down in Lawton.
He was, he was inspecting ahouse and, uh, He said he got
(08:52):
done with our typical processes.
We do the outside, do the roofs,get all the main components
outside, then we go inside.
Mark was coming out of thishouse, finishing it up.
And he said, I looked next doorand there was smoke bellowing
from the house next door thathad caught on fire.
Oh, goodness.
(09:13):
Oh, no.
So it's just like you see allkinds of crazy stuff.
You know, I was with Jan theother day.
And this house needs to be onwhatever craziest properties
website you can find.
It had a train room, a church inthe backyard.
(09:35):
It was the craziest place I'veever seen.
What do you mean it had a churchin the backyard?
It literally had a, the guy waspretty eccentric.
Okay.
And what was it a cult?
No, no, it was just a guy.
Okay, yeah, fair enough.
And it literally had fouroutbuildings in this backyard,
(09:59):
and it had a church in thebackyard.
And when you walked into thischurch, I mean, it had a bell
tower the whole nine yards.
Whoa.
It was crazy.
It had a laundry room, a shower,and the dude was just...
(10:19):
that type of guy.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (10:21):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:21):
But you know, Jan and I, you know, and he was, he
was an older gentleman that haspassed away.
And so you can imagine living ina house for 60 plus years, what
you're going to find in thishouse.
You've collected some things atthat point in your life.
Had to meet Jan over there on aSaturday to, uh, get into the
(10:42):
attic and do some of that stuff.
And we found tax returns and allkinds of stuff, like just
stacked in a corner of thisattic.
And you're like, you know, whyis that up here?
Like, what do you hide?
You know, you know, it's kindof, it's kind of a little bit
(11:02):
interesting going into some ofthese houses.
It's, you know, we do some, Wedo some inspections for
investment companies, and thosecan be rather interesting.
For one, you get into a lot ofhoarder situations.
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
I did an inspection on oneinvestment company was buying,
(11:26):
and it was literally stacked inan eight-foot high room with
magazines, newspapers, and theyhad trails.
So you could just kind of...
Follow along
SPEAKER_00 (11:41):
through the...
Game trails.
You've now partnered with MarieKondo to be able to...
No, no.
But I mean, apart from findingchurches in backyards,
rattlesnakes, who knows where,taxidermy in closets, what
actually got you into inspectingbefore deciding...
(12:04):
To leave the oil and gasindustry, Mike.
SPEAKER_02 (12:06):
You know, it's one of those deals.
You know, I grew up.
My grandpa built houses, was ahandyman type of guy, you know.
We fabbed, welded, you know.
It just kind of was like, yeah,that would be fun.
You know, it's 180 degreedifference from oil and gas.
(12:28):
And, you know.
When you work for these largecorporations, helping people is
out the window.
And that's what drew me thereis, you know, I get the
opportunity every day to go outand help somebody and make, help
(12:53):
them make the right decisions.
And like Garrett said, you know,as a first time home buyer, you
don't know.
You don't know.
And you need somebody therethat's going to be impartial and
walk you through that along withyour real estate agent and help
(13:13):
you make an educated decision onwhether this is a good
investment purchase or not.
And that's one of the thingsthat kind of drew me to this.
That and...
I just like digging throughhouses.
It's like, I mean, it's a lot offun.
SPEAKER_00 (13:35):
I think we have a decent number of listeners just
because we have so manyentrepreneurs that listen to the
podcast that, you know, maybeit's not a story where they got
to the end of one career anddecided to be able to start
another, but there's so manywhere...
people were dissatisfied with acareer and they decided, I have
(13:57):
to do something different inorder to be able to be happy.
If there's somebody out therewho's listening, who's kind of
at that fork in the road, what'sadvice that you would give to
them on how to choose their pathforward?
SPEAKER_02 (14:19):
The biggest thing for me, I probably would have
done this 10 years ago, if ithadn't been for the
comfortability aspect of, youknow, being in a career that
long, you know, by all means, Ithink, you know, really, really
(14:40):
dig into what you're thinkingabout doing, but don't be scared
to jump into it either.
I think that's what held me backand kept me Mm-hmm.
Right.
(15:03):
Right.
Don't just jump into somethingand come home and say, hey, look
(15:24):
what I did.
Surprise.
Hey, we have no money anymore.
I don't have a job.
No.
You know, if you're thinkingabout getting out of the
corporate setting, definitely doyour homework.
Talk to your financial people.
(15:44):
Talk to, you know, anybodythat's done that before, because
it's not for the faint of heart.
Um, you know, like for me, whenI left, I was in, you know,
leadership, I wasn't in thefield anymore.
And, you know, you get a littletoo comfortable in life towards
(16:09):
mundane and it's, you don'trealize the stress that you're
under until you make thatdecision to leave.
Um, I think that's been thebiggest reward right there is,
is even though, you know, I'mnavigating a new venture and a
(16:32):
new career and all that stuffafter spending most of my adult
life in one industry, it's, uh,it's definitely been a whole lot
less stressful.
Um, And, you know, the money isone thing, but the stress, you
(16:58):
know, the ability to go out,make your own schedule, do your
own thing and help people out byfar outweighs everything else.
Yeah.
And, you know, don't get mewrong.
Money's important, but.
Money's not everything.
SPEAKER_00 (17:17):
Yeah.
And aside from the practicalconsiderations of starting to
work for yourself, a lot ofpeople often forget that you
still get to have the life thatyou want to live because you're
a certain kind of hobbyist,aren't you, Mike?
Yes.
You've got a couple few things,including possibly being a
musician.
SPEAKER_02 (17:31):
Yeah.
Something like that.
You know, it's one of thosedeals.
I have a little bit more timenow.
Well, not right this second.
I mean, we're pretty busy tryingto figure all this stuff out.
But, you know.
We should have had you bringyour instrument here for the
SPEAKER_00 (17:49):
podcast.
SPEAKER_02 (17:49):
I don't know that.
I'm pretty sure it would haveoverdrove all these mics.
SPEAKER_00 (17:53):
A little bit, yeah.
It might bust these littlebasses.
SPEAKER_02 (17:56):
Yeah, I think it would have.
We'd have had some audiodifficulties with that one.
But, yeah, I mean, it gives me alittle bit more time to play
bagpipes, to golf and set upsound equipment for people.
Yeah.
So, which I enjoy all three.
(18:19):
So splitting those up, my wifejust rolls her eyes at me.
What are we doing this weekend?
I think I'm playing golf onSaturday.
SPEAKER_00 (18:28):
Well, and it's another thing to consider as
well, because you doing this foryourself a little bit.
Now we've got national propertyinspections going on.
What's a hiccup as far asenlarging your practice?
that you would recommend toother entrepreneurs that are
actually trying to expand andgrow their own business?
SPEAKER_02 (18:52):
Say it.
Do it.
Sorry.
You all didn't see what happenedin that window right there.
SPEAKER_00 (18:56):
Oh, no.
We have a window into thepodcast studio.
Shenanigans occurred.
Apparently shenanigans.
Dark walk by.
Fearless leader shenanigans.
Excellent.
SPEAKER_02 (19:08):
I would say, you know, with trying to grow your
business, you know, it's one ofthose deals.
You've got to have thatmarketing base.
You know, you may have greatideas, right?
(19:29):
Nolan may come to me one day andsay, hey, I've got this great
idea.
It's going to just triple yourincome.
You know, triple your business,going to triple the flow.
And.
Garrett, you know how thisworks.
You look at him and say, yeah,that's great.
That's a good idea, but it ain'tgoing to work.
(19:52):
You know, I would I would adviseanybody that's really wanting
to.
You know, grow and, you know,build a bigger footprint in
whatever field they're in.
is find you a good, goodmarketing firm and be willing to
(20:15):
push out the funds for it.
That's going to be the big deal.
That's the hardest thing isfiguring out what direction is
best for your company andfinding you a marketing firm
that will listen and understandtruly dig in and try to
(20:38):
understand your industry.
Fortunately for, for us, youknow, with national property
inspections, we have an amazingmarketing team.
They're all over it, you know,and Mark and myself are trying
to, you know, really ramp upthe, our footprint here in
(21:00):
Oklahoma city.
And yeah, I've talked to ourmarketing team more in the last
three weeks than I talked to ourmarketing team at my old job in
the last 20 years.
Um, they're on it.
They're listening.
They really dig into mine andMark's personal, you know,
(21:26):
strengths and weaknesses orpersonalities like that matters.
Um, And, you know, I'm prettyoutgoing.
I can talk to anybody.
Like I don't have, I don't thinkI've ever met a stranger.
Mark's 180 degrees the otherway.
(21:46):
Right.
And the marketing thing.
Yeah.
He gets up and talks to people.
He teaches classes.
He does all that stuff, but it'sa little out of his wheelhouse.
So having that yin and yang, um,thing with this marketing team
with us is really a good fit forus.
(22:10):
So I can set and work with themand come up with stuff and go
back and say, hey, Mark, here'swhat we're talking about.
And you can tell whether or notit's going to be a good thing,
whether he's comfortable with itor not.
(22:31):
And you know, getting up, youknow, he's just Mark's very
reserved and I'm not, and that'sperfect for us.
Like I'm the, you know, me andmy wife are the same way.
Like I'm the outgoing one andshe's not, you know, you know,
and it, it works.
(22:52):
So, you know, and it's, it's,it's great.
You know, Mark's Mark's kind ofthe introvert in the group.
Me and Dustin are not, you know,
SPEAKER_00 (23:02):
And, you know, I would presume that some of the
nifty little gifts that youbrought us here today are some
of the marketing team's brainchildren.
Could you talk to us a littlebit about some of the literature
that you brought us today andhow some people can possibly get
some value out of it?
SPEAKER_02 (23:15):
So these books that I brought to you guys this
morning, that's a nationalproperty inspections, you know,
basic home systems for newhomebuyers.
So– You know, we give these outto new home buyers, right?
(23:37):
And as you look through these,like, it gives you, you know,
utility services, garbagerecycling, you know, gets into
depth on asbestos, radon, carbonmonoxide, you know, carbon
monoxide testers, heat and airconditioning.
Like, it is basically a manualfor the systems that are in your
(24:01):
home.
Um, and it's, I don't know howmany pages it is, like 70 pages.
And I mean, some of it even getsinto, you know, siding brick
structural stuff, you know, forpeople that like Garrett said
that don't know, um, you know,we deal with this every day and
(24:24):
we kind of, as you're in anindustry, um, for a certain
amount of time, you just take itfor granted that people know
what you're talking about.
Well, they don't.
Um, and that's, that's why, youknow, we have these and we give
these out to new home buyers.
You know, there's valuableinformation in here that makes
you an educated, maybe not anexpert, but at least you're an
(24:48):
educated buyer at that point.
Um, So, yeah, we have lots ofstuff like this that, you know,
we'll we'll drop off or as we'recompleting, you know, an
inspection or something likethat.
Like we will give these tohomebuyers or if we're doing a
homebuyers, you know, conferencetype deal or, you know,
(25:11):
something like that.
Like we will we'll have theseavailable for people.
Excellent.
So
SPEAKER_00 (25:16):
you've got everything set up.
really well.
You're expanding.
You've got some great stuff foryour clientele.
But then what's the biggerpicture for Mike?
What is this business trying toserve you now as you've changed
careers?
We're in a different industry.
We're still growing andexpanding.
But what does your business dofor you?
SPEAKER_02 (25:39):
It gives me that fulfillment of helping people.
I mean, that's the top thing.
You get into the grind of it.
And it's just like any otherjob.
Right.
But at the end of the day, whenyou look back at it, whether a
(26:01):
buyer takes the house goesforward with the, with the
purchase or backs out, you've,you've helped them either way.
Right.
Right.
Um, that's the biggest thing forme.
And I, you know, like I said, Ididn't have the availability,
um, at my old job, right?
It was, it was very much acorporate driven deal and just a
(26:22):
cog in the wheel.
Well, we're not just cogs in awheel.
We're cogs in a wheel in agreater sense of that whole real
estate transaction thing.
Like we have our part, buteducating people on what they're
actually looking at and youknow, the purchase they're
(26:43):
fixing to make, I think is thebiggest thing for me.
Excellent.
SPEAKER_00 (26:47):
Wonderful.
Well to, uh, to kind of, youknow, bring things around, we've
covered a whole lot of groundinside of this episode, which is
fantastic, you know, from havinga church in the backyard, which
is now the recurring thing I'mgoing to be thinking about this
week.
Yeah.
How does that get there?
(27:07):
But truly helping, uh, people beable to solve problems that they
don't know how to deal with ontheir own and giving them peace
of mind to taking the leap intosomething new even though it's
not easy Yes.
You did a good job.
Thank you.
(27:31):
And then at the end here, justkind of touching on the
education piece and how it's soimportant to help educate the
people that we work with.
I don't think so.
(27:55):
Mike, where can people find youthen to take advantage of your
excellent company that you'vebuilt?
SPEAKER_02 (28:06):
So you can find us, hang on, because we're changing
stuff.
Let me get it pulled up.
I knew you were going to askthat.
SPEAKER_00 (28:17):
That's all right.
We always like to bring a couplesurprises.
That's right.
Yeah, you did, too.
And while you're pulling it up,maybe I can just tell a couple
jokes.
Oh, excellent.
Yeah, there you go.
There you go.
Where's my drum kit?
Oh, yeah.
Hey, there you go.
Here, here's one for you.
Don't bother.
(28:37):
It's about communism.
SPEAKER_01 (28:40):
Excellent.
SPEAKER_00 (28:41):
Bringing it right back around to the McCarthy joke
I made at the beginning.
I don't know how there were somany people who during World War
II struggled jumping in with theNazis and communism.
Yeah.
Just seems like there were somany red flags.
SPEAKER_02 (29:04):
Oh, that's wrong.
That is wrong.
SPEAKER_01 (29:10):
Oh,
SPEAKER_02 (29:10):
man.
Oh, good stuff.
Oh, gosh.
I'm a consummate professional.
All right.
Here you go.
You can find us on the web atmpiweb.com backslash NPITexoma.
You can reach out to us on...
We've got a Facebook page.
SPEAKER_00 (29:33):
Call the office.
All right.
Thank you so much, Mike, forbeing here.
And our tradition is to have ourguests say the second part of
our slogan.
We always say, stay sharp andthink biz.
Would you say the think biz forus?
I will.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleaseenjoy the rest of your day as
you've been listening.
Remember to stay sharp.
(29:53):
And think biz.
UNKNOWN (29:56):
Thank you.
So,
you
SPEAKER_00 (00:11):
should next time you're doing a sound check run
some hildegard von bingen
SPEAKER_02 (00:15):
oh yeah we use that yeah oh yeah to to check like
low frequency stuff
SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
so hello everyone welcome good morning garrett how
are we We, Mike, have beensurprising our guests by
starting the podcast becausewe're silly.
So I've just been hitting recordthe last few episodes and we're
goofy, goosey ganders over here.
(00:45):
Welcome, welcome.
We have Mike.
You know what, Mike?
I actually don't know if Iremember your last name.
SPEAKER_02 (00:52):
It's McDaniel.
SPEAKER_00 (00:53):
McDaniel.
Mike McDaniel.
To my shame, I did not remember.
That's all right.
It's early.
That's why my name is Garrett.
My name is Robert the Bruce.
Here we go again.
Here we go again.
And of course, we have theinfamous Nolan with us this
(01:13):
morning.
Don't bother, we're infamoustoday.
But Mike, so happy to have you.
Thank you for being on thepodcast.
Yeah, you're welcome.
This is actually our second timehaving Mike.
Technical difficulties.
Stand by.
Yep.
If you have been thinking toyourself after hearing that, I
haven't heard Mike on thepodcast before.
That's correct.
That is correct.
(01:35):
We totally botched the audio thelast time.
We fixed it.
Everything's better now.
We think- The technology works.
Yep.
So take two, action.
Voila.
Mike, tell us about yourself.
Who are you?
What do you do?
And give us like just a fun factabout yourself.
SPEAKER_02 (01:57):
So I'm Mike McDaniel.
I am- The lead inspector andmarket development person for
national property inspectionsfor Oklahoma City.
We have a multi-inspector firm.
(02:17):
There's three of us.
And we service Oklahoma City andthe southwest part of the state,
like Lawton, Fort Sill, youknow, Duncan, Marlowe,
Chickasha, and everything inbetween.
So...
Yeah, it's very busy.
SPEAKER_00 (02:36):
And this is fairly new with the natural property
inspection.
But you're not new to the gameat all.
No, not at all.
You've been doing it for a long
SPEAKER_02 (02:49):
time.
So I spent the last 28 years inthe oil and gas industry.
I hit that mark where I couldretire, and I did.
And, you know, through...
extracurricular activities.
You know, I've known Mark for awhile and.
SPEAKER_00 (03:08):
And Mark is your partner.
SPEAKER_02 (03:10):
Mark's the partner.
Um, and Dustin, we're allpartners really.
I mean, you know, it, it makes ateam, it takes a team to, to, to
make this crazy thing go around.
So, um, it's more like threebrothers, uh, working together
and, you know, wrestling in thedirt after it all said and done
(03:33):
that way we can figure out whowas right and who's wrong.
Yeah.
So that's fair.
It's, it's really a lot of fun.
Um, being a part of this is, youknow, definitely, uh, in the
long run was, is going to be avery good move for all of us.
So, um, you know, Being out onyour own, and you guys know how
(03:57):
that is, it's a little taxingsometimes.
But coming into this MPI family,you've got support, you've got
marketing folks, you've gotcoaches, you've got all of this
stuff at your fingertips nowthat makes life a little bit
(04:19):
easier.
SPEAKER_00 (04:21):
Sure.
Well, I...
I love that there's people outthere doing exactly what you do
because when I was buying myfirst home, it was, I mean, I
was...
I had no idea what I was doing.
(04:42):
That's a good way to put it.
And so there's a lot to learnwhen you're buying a house.
And when you can bring in aninspector who can tell you
exactly, hey, here's some thingsyou need to pay attention to
before you pull the trigger onthis property, gives you a
little bit of extra peace andassurance that you're not making
(05:03):
a terrible life decision.
Yeah.
On something very
SPEAKER_02 (05:07):
expensive.
One of the things we prideourselves on is making it not
scary.
Because I have a friend of minethat has a saying, and I've kind
of latched onto it.
(05:28):
Imperfect houses are built byimperfect people.
People are going to miss things.
People are going to...
have off days, you know, andthat's why we're there to find
it.
As good or as bad as a homemight be, they're typically not
(05:48):
that bad.
And when you look at a homeinspection report, I mean, it
can scare, you know, thebiggest, baddest, you know,
investor on the planet.
But we pride ourselves on, youknow, being impartial and really
being thorough on it.
(06:09):
And as we go through thosereports with our clients and
realtors and stuff like that isto make it not scary, but state
the facts.
You know, a lot of people are inthis industry are just kind of
matter of fact, and what it isis what it is.
(06:30):
We take the time to, you know,set and talk and go through
reports and, you know, make surethat, you know, you, you as a,
as a buyer understand whatyou're, what you're purchasing.
Um, so, you know, it's a littledifferent with us.
(06:51):
Um, we kind of feel like we'regoing above and beyond in some
of this stuff and for the rightreasons.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (07:00):
So, um, Which is really important inside of an
industry like, you know,properties in general.
It's just a huge, hugeinvestment.
But I do have to digress becausethere was a bit of conversation
the last time that we gottogether.
And I won't ask you for thespecific story that we talked
(07:23):
about, but I will ask you, doyou have any fun inspections
that you have done?
And by fun, do I mean,ridiculous.
He's like, what can I share on apodcast?
Yeah,
SPEAKER_02 (07:44):
because I'm going to share some of it here in a
little bit.
You know, we work down in Lawtonand Oklahoma City, and you guys
know how the southwest part ofthe state is.
What's down there?
Rattlesnakes.
Yes.
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (08:04):
That's a trick question, Mike.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
SPEAKER_02 (08:10):
I hurried up and answered that question for
myself.
I was about to say Texans.
Yeah.
Don't start with that either.
Inevitably, Dustin.
for whatever reason, I don'tknow if he's not living right or
what, but that dude finds morerattlesnakes and sends them to
(08:30):
Mark and says, look what Ifound, you know, um, Mark, the
other day we were talking andwhen he first got into this, uh,
you know, Mark was a firecaptain down in Lawton.
He was, he was inspecting ahouse and, uh, He said he got
(08:52):
done with our typical processes.
We do the outside, do the roofs,get all the main components
outside, then we go inside.
Mark was coming out of thishouse, finishing it up.
And he said, I looked next doorand there was smoke bellowing
from the house next door thathad caught on fire.
Oh, goodness.
(09:13):
Oh, no.
So it's just like you see allkinds of crazy stuff.
You know, I was with Jan theother day.
And this house needs to be onwhatever craziest properties
website you can find.
It had a train room, a church inthe backyard.
(09:35):
It was the craziest place I'veever seen.
What do you mean it had a churchin the backyard?
It literally had a, the guy waspretty eccentric.
Okay.
And what was it a cult?
No, no, it was just a guy.
Okay, yeah, fair enough.
And it literally had fouroutbuildings in this backyard,
(09:59):
and it had a church in thebackyard.
And when you walked into thischurch, I mean, it had a bell
tower the whole nine yards.
Whoa.
It was crazy.
It had a laundry room, a shower,and the dude was just...
(10:19):
that type of guy.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (10:21):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:21):
But you know, Jan and I, you know, and he was, he
was an older gentleman that haspassed away.
And so you can imagine living ina house for 60 plus years, what
you're going to find in thishouse.
You've collected some things atthat point in your life.
Had to meet Jan over there on aSaturday to, uh, get into the
(10:42):
attic and do some of that stuff.
And we found tax returns and allkinds of stuff, like just
stacked in a corner of thisattic.
And you're like, you know, whyis that up here?
Like, what do you hide?
You know, you know, it's kindof, it's kind of a little bit
(11:02):
interesting going into some ofthese houses.
It's, you know, we do some, Wedo some inspections for
investment companies, and thosecan be rather interesting.
For one, you get into a lot ofhoarder situations.
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
I did an inspection on oneinvestment company was buying,
(11:26):
and it was literally stacked inan eight-foot high room with
magazines, newspapers, and theyhad trails.
So you could just kind of...
Follow along
SPEAKER_00 (11:41):
through the...
Game trails.
You've now partnered with MarieKondo to be able to...
No, no.
But I mean, apart from findingchurches in backyards,
rattlesnakes, who knows where,taxidermy in closets, what
actually got you into inspectingbefore deciding...
(12:04):
To leave the oil and gasindustry, Mike.
SPEAKER_02 (12:06):
You know, it's one of those deals.
You know, I grew up.
My grandpa built houses, was ahandyman type of guy, you know.
We fabbed, welded, you know.
It just kind of was like, yeah,that would be fun.
You know, it's 180 degreedifference from oil and gas.
(12:28):
And, you know.
When you work for these largecorporations, helping people is
out the window.
And that's what drew me thereis, you know, I get the
opportunity every day to go outand help somebody and make, help
(12:53):
them make the right decisions.
And like Garrett said, you know,as a first time home buyer, you
don't know.
You don't know.
And you need somebody therethat's going to be impartial and
walk you through that along withyour real estate agent and help
(13:13):
you make an educated decision onwhether this is a good
investment purchase or not.
And that's one of the thingsthat kind of drew me to this.
That and...
I just like digging throughhouses.
It's like, I mean, it's a lot offun.
SPEAKER_00 (13:35):
I think we have a decent number of listeners just
because we have so manyentrepreneurs that listen to the
podcast that, you know, maybeit's not a story where they got
to the end of one career anddecided to be able to start
another, but there's so manywhere...
people were dissatisfied with acareer and they decided, I have
(13:57):
to do something different inorder to be able to be happy.
If there's somebody out therewho's listening, who's kind of
at that fork in the road, what'sadvice that you would give to
them on how to choose their pathforward?
SPEAKER_02 (14:19):
The biggest thing for me, I probably would have
done this 10 years ago, if ithadn't been for the
comfortability aspect of, youknow, being in a career that
long, you know, by all means, Ithink, you know, really, really
(14:40):
dig into what you're thinkingabout doing, but don't be scared
to jump into it either.
I think that's what held me backand kept me Mm-hmm.
Right.
(15:03):
Right.
Don't just jump into somethingand come home and say, hey, look
(15:24):
what I did.
Surprise.
Hey, we have no money anymore.
I don't have a job.
No.
You know, if you're thinkingabout getting out of the
corporate setting, definitely doyour homework.
Talk to your financial people.
(15:44):
Talk to, you know, anybodythat's done that before, because
it's not for the faint of heart.
Um, you know, like for me, whenI left, I was in, you know,
leadership, I wasn't in thefield anymore.
And, you know, you get a littletoo comfortable in life towards
(16:09):
mundane and it's, you don'trealize the stress that you're
under until you make thatdecision to leave.
Um, I think that's been thebiggest reward right there is,
is even though, you know, I'mnavigating a new venture and a
(16:32):
new career and all that stuffafter spending most of my adult
life in one industry, it's, uh,it's definitely been a whole lot
less stressful.
Um, And, you know, the money isone thing, but the stress, you
(16:58):
know, the ability to go out,make your own schedule, do your
own thing and help people out byfar outweighs everything else.
Yeah.
And, you know, don't get mewrong.
Money's important, but.
Money's not everything.
SPEAKER_00 (17:17):
Yeah.
And aside from the practicalconsiderations of starting to
work for yourself, a lot ofpeople often forget that you
still get to have the life thatyou want to live because you're
a certain kind of hobbyist,aren't you, Mike?
Yes.
You've got a couple few things,including possibly being a
musician.
SPEAKER_02 (17:31):
Yeah.
Something like that.
You know, it's one of thosedeals.
I have a little bit more timenow.
Well, not right this second.
I mean, we're pretty busy tryingto figure all this stuff out.
But, you know.
We should have had you bringyour instrument here for the
SPEAKER_00 (17:49):
podcast.
SPEAKER_02 (17:49):
I don't know that.
I'm pretty sure it would haveoverdrove all these mics.
SPEAKER_00 (17:53):
A little bit, yeah.
It might bust these littlebasses.
SPEAKER_02 (17:56):
Yeah, I think it would have.
We'd have had some audiodifficulties with that one.
But, yeah, I mean, it gives me alittle bit more time to play
bagpipes, to golf and set upsound equipment for people.
Yeah.
So, which I enjoy all three.
(18:19):
So splitting those up, my wifejust rolls her eyes at me.
What are we doing this weekend?
I think I'm playing golf onSaturday.
SPEAKER_00 (18:28):
Well, and it's another thing to consider as
well, because you doing this foryourself a little bit.
Now we've got national propertyinspections going on.
What's a hiccup as far asenlarging your practice?
that you would recommend toother entrepreneurs that are
actually trying to expand andgrow their own business?
SPEAKER_02 (18:52):
Say it.
Do it.
Sorry.
You all didn't see what happenedin that window right there.
SPEAKER_00 (18:56):
Oh, no.
We have a window into thepodcast studio.
Shenanigans occurred.
Apparently shenanigans.
Dark walk by.
Fearless leader shenanigans.
Excellent.
SPEAKER_02 (19:08):
I would say, you know, with trying to grow your
business, you know, it's one ofthose deals.
You've got to have thatmarketing base.
You know, you may have greatideas, right?
(19:29):
Nolan may come to me one day andsay, hey, I've got this great
idea.
It's going to just triple yourincome.
You know, triple your business,going to triple the flow.
And.
Garrett, you know how thisworks.
You look at him and say, yeah,that's great.
That's a good idea, but it ain'tgoing to work.
(19:52):
You know, I would I would adviseanybody that's really wanting
to.
You know, grow and, you know,build a bigger footprint in
whatever field they're in.
is find you a good, goodmarketing firm and be willing to
(20:15):
push out the funds for it.
That's going to be the big deal.
That's the hardest thing isfiguring out what direction is
best for your company andfinding you a marketing firm
that will listen and understandtruly dig in and try to
(20:38):
understand your industry.
Fortunately for, for us, youknow, with national property
inspections, we have an amazingmarketing team.
They're all over it, you know,and Mark and myself are trying
to, you know, really ramp upthe, our footprint here in
(21:00):
Oklahoma city.
And yeah, I've talked to ourmarketing team more in the last
three weeks than I talked to ourmarketing team at my old job in
the last 20 years.
Um, they're on it.
They're listening.
They really dig into mine andMark's personal, you know,
(21:26):
strengths and weaknesses orpersonalities like that matters.
Um, And, you know, I'm prettyoutgoing.
I can talk to anybody.
Like I don't have, I don't thinkI've ever met a stranger.
Mark's 180 degrees the otherway.
(21:46):
Right.
And the marketing thing.
Yeah.
He gets up and talks to people.
He teaches classes.
He does all that stuff, but it'sa little out of his wheelhouse.
So having that yin and yang, um,thing with this marketing team
with us is really a good fit forus.
(22:10):
So I can set and work with themand come up with stuff and go
back and say, hey, Mark, here'swhat we're talking about.
And you can tell whether or notit's going to be a good thing,
whether he's comfortable with itor not.
(22:31):
And you know, getting up, youknow, he's just Mark's very
reserved and I'm not, and that'sperfect for us.
Like I'm the, you know, me andmy wife are the same way.
Like I'm the outgoing one andshe's not, you know, you know,
and it, it works.
(22:52):
So, you know, and it's, it's,it's great.
You know, Mark's Mark's kind ofthe introvert in the group.
Me and Dustin are not, you know,
SPEAKER_00 (23:02):
And, you know, I would presume that some of the
nifty little gifts that youbrought us here today are some
of the marketing team's brainchildren.
Could you talk to us a littlebit about some of the literature
that you brought us today andhow some people can possibly get
some value out of it?
SPEAKER_02 (23:15):
So these books that I brought to you guys this
morning, that's a nationalproperty inspections, you know,
basic home systems for newhomebuyers.
So– You know, we give these outto new home buyers, right?
(23:37):
And as you look through these,like, it gives you, you know,
utility services, garbagerecycling, you know, gets into
depth on asbestos, radon, carbonmonoxide, you know, carbon
monoxide testers, heat and airconditioning.
Like, it is basically a manualfor the systems that are in your
(24:01):
home.
Um, and it's, I don't know howmany pages it is, like 70 pages.
And I mean, some of it even getsinto, you know, siding brick
structural stuff, you know, forpeople that like Garrett said
that don't know, um, you know,we deal with this every day and
(24:24):
we kind of, as you're in anindustry, um, for a certain
amount of time, you just take itfor granted that people know
what you're talking about.
Well, they don't.
Um, and that's, that's why, youknow, we have these and we give
these out to new home buyers.
You know, there's valuableinformation in here that makes
you an educated, maybe not anexpert, but at least you're an
(24:48):
educated buyer at that point.
Um, So, yeah, we have lots ofstuff like this that, you know,
we'll we'll drop off or as we'recompleting, you know, an
inspection or something likethat.
Like we will give these tohomebuyers or if we're doing a
homebuyers, you know, conferencetype deal or, you know,
(25:11):
something like that.
Like we will we'll have theseavailable for people.
Excellent.
So
SPEAKER_00 (25:16):
you've got everything set up.
really well.
You're expanding.
You've got some great stuff foryour clientele.
But then what's the biggerpicture for Mike?
What is this business trying toserve you now as you've changed
careers?
We're in a different industry.
We're still growing andexpanding.
But what does your business dofor you?
SPEAKER_02 (25:39):
It gives me that fulfillment of helping people.
I mean, that's the top thing.
You get into the grind of it.
And it's just like any otherjob.
Right.
But at the end of the day, whenyou look back at it, whether a
(26:01):
buyer takes the house goesforward with the, with the
purchase or backs out, you've,you've helped them either way.
Right.
Right.
Um, that's the biggest thing forme.
And I, you know, like I said, Ididn't have the availability,
um, at my old job, right?
It was, it was very much acorporate driven deal and just a
(26:22):
cog in the wheel.
Well, we're not just cogs in awheel.
We're cogs in a wheel in agreater sense of that whole real
estate transaction thing.
Like we have our part, buteducating people on what they're
actually looking at and youknow, the purchase they're
(26:43):
fixing to make, I think is thebiggest thing for me.
Excellent.
SPEAKER_00 (26:47):
Wonderful.
Well to, uh, to kind of, youknow, bring things around, we've
covered a whole lot of groundinside of this episode, which is
fantastic, you know, from havinga church in the backyard, which
is now the recurring thing I'mgoing to be thinking about this
week.
Yeah.
How does that get there?
(27:07):
But truly helping, uh, people beable to solve problems that they
don't know how to deal with ontheir own and giving them peace
of mind to taking the leap intosomething new even though it's
not easy Yes.
You did a good job.
Thank you.
(27:31):
And then at the end here, justkind of touching on the
education piece and how it's soimportant to help educate the
people that we work with.
I don't think so.
(27:55):
Mike, where can people find youthen to take advantage of your
excellent company that you'vebuilt?
SPEAKER_02 (28:06):
So you can find us, hang on, because we're changing
stuff.
Let me get it pulled up.
I knew you were going to askthat.
SPEAKER_00 (28:17):
That's all right.
We always like to bring a couplesurprises.
That's right.
Yeah, you did, too.
And while you're pulling it up,maybe I can just tell a couple
jokes.
Oh, excellent.
Yeah, there you go.
There you go.
Where's my drum kit?
Oh, yeah.
Hey, there you go.
Here, here's one for you.
Don't bother.
(28:37):
It's about communism.
SPEAKER_01 (28:40):
Excellent.
SPEAKER_00 (28:41):
Bringing it right back around to the McCarthy joke
I made at the beginning.
I don't know how there were somany people who during World War
II struggled jumping in with theNazis and communism.
Yeah.
Just seems like there were somany red flags.
SPEAKER_02 (29:04):
Oh, that's wrong.
That is wrong.
SPEAKER_01 (29:10):
Oh,
SPEAKER_02 (29:10):
man.
Oh, good stuff.
Oh, gosh.
I'm a consummate professional.
All right.
Here you go.
You can find us on the web atmpiweb.com backslash NPITexoma.
You can reach out to us on...
We've got a Facebook page.
SPEAKER_00 (29:33):
Call the office.
All right.
Thank you so much, Mike, forbeing here.
And our tradition is to have ourguests say the second part of
our slogan.
We always say, stay sharp andthink biz.
Would you say the think biz forus?
I will.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleaseenjoy the rest of your day as
you've been listening.
Remember to stay sharp.
(29:53):
And think biz.
UNKNOWN (29:56):
Thank you.
So,
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