Latest / Movified / 25 Years. 4 Locations. 180 Employees: Inside Firefighting's Finest with Derrick Potter!

Transcript

25 Years. 4 Locations. 180 Employees: Inside Firefighting's Finest with Derrick Potter! · Movified

0:05
Maybe we can do something a little different.
0:07
I happen to be at a a race up at Texas Motor Speedway with
0:11
another fireman buddy of mine that did some movement on the
0:13
side as well with and we met a woman who said that she needed
0:17
to get her house moved like in the next week.
0:20
And we said we can do it. We didn't have any aspirations
0:23
of a business. We didn't have a truck, we
0:25
didn't have equipment, we had nothing.
0:27
She says she gave us the opportunity to move and we just
0:29
asked him, Hey, will you rent us your trailer with equipment and
0:33
we'll pull it with with Matt Franks truck and we'll do the
0:36
job. And he said, yeah, that was our
0:38
very first job from her and we just, we just figured it out.
0:42
Well, it was incredible because she turned that into like by
0:47
Mondays is Mobify Mondays, where mindset meets momentum.
0:54
The start of the week where real movers reset, refocus and rise,
0:58
rise. Alright, some companies grow
1:00
fast and some fall apart really quickly.
1:04
We see it all day, every day. Others grow in ways that
1:07
actually feels controlled. We also see that too
1:10
intentional, structured, and when you look from the outside,
1:13
you start asking you're like, how did they make it look so
1:16
simple? Today's guest built
1:19
Firefighting's Finest. With that kind of progression
1:23
behind, it's not just luck, it's a mindset that we look in place.
1:28
Built long before that business even started.
1:30
From being in the army to the fire service to scaling multiple
1:34
locations, it is the one and only Derek Potter.
1:38
Welcome to Mumified Mondays, everybody.
1:42
I'm your host, Mark Hershey, owner of Salmons and Ellis
1:45
Moving and Storage, located in beautiful Vancouver, BC.
1:48
And my guest today is the one and only Derek Potter, founder
1:52
of Firefighting's Finest, a multi locational moving company
1:56
built on discipline, leadership, strong operational structure and
2:00
one hell of a good smile. Welcome to the show, Derek.
2:05
Thank you very much. I sure appreciate you having me
2:07
on. It's been a pleasure to to
2:09
finally meet you in person earlier this year.
2:11
And I watched the show and you know, I jumped at the chance to
2:15
be able to join you here. So thank you very much for
2:17
having me. No problem.
2:18
You know you when I first met you.
2:21
Well, wait a second. I met you the year before when
2:25
you actually sat on the panel. We did a big.
2:28
Panel. Review and I remember catching
2:30
up with you this year for a lot. We had a lot more one-on-one.
2:33
We had actually had a great opportunity to kind of connect,
2:36
chat more. You met my wife and who's a wild
2:39
character on her own. And but what what it did come up
2:44
was you going to me and something that you know, me and
2:47
Steven Reed didn't even think about would go wait a second.
2:50
We haven't had a one-on-one with Mr. Potter like what's happening
2:54
here, you know, for someone who has built such a legacy of a of
2:58
a company in Fort Worth, TX, we need to have you on the show.
3:04
Well, thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that.
3:06
And you know, just gives me a chance to share some of the
3:09
experiences we've had and, and really spotlight the great team
3:13
that we have here. You know, because that's one
3:15
thing that's characterized everything as, as I've gone
3:19
along from from the Army to the fire service to the moving
3:22
company here is having a special team and and having a strong
3:25
team to support each other. So thank you for for having me
3:29
on so we can talk. About it, Well, let's let's kind
3:31
of rewind the clock right from the back.
3:35
You're in the Army. You leave, you leave.
3:38
What was your position like? How how was that in part of your
3:42
life? Was that something that you
3:43
always wanted to do? Was hey, I want to be in the
3:45
army. Well, I joined the Army a little
3:48
bit late and I was in my mid 20s when I joined the Army, and
3:52
that's kind of rare, but so I joined back then you could join
3:56
for a two year commitment, you know, and I wanted to get some
3:59
money for school, help, help myself out a little bit.
4:02
So I joined in, in 95 and I was stationed at Fort Sill.
4:07
I went to Korea for a year. I was stationed up on the DMZ
4:11
right on the border there for a year and that was really hard
4:13
duty with an infantry unit, really great.
4:15
Came back to Fort Sill and during that time in the Army, I
4:18
would drive down from Fort Sill, OK to Austin and work with a
4:22
buddy that had a movement company down there.
4:24
So I was kind of immersed in the business.
4:26
I would answer the phones, I would give estimates.
4:30
I, I helped on all the operations while I was there on
4:32
the weekends and then I'll drive back to Fort Sill.
4:35
So it came, came 1998 came when I needed to separate from the
4:42
Army and I was looking for a fire service job.
4:45
All the cities in Oklahoma or Texas and Fort Worth just
4:49
happened to be the first city I tested with and luckily enough I
4:53
got hired on. Was that like a, a big thought
4:55
like is that, and I don't know how it works, especially down
4:59
South, but you, you leave the army, you, you've done your,
5:04
your service for a couple years. And, and we as a Canadian, we
5:08
always appreciate anybody that served, you know, in kind of any
5:12
of the army forces or naval forces as well too.
5:14
So appreciate everything that you've done.
5:17
Thank you. But then do you, do you get
5:20
like, is there a bunch of guys are going let's be a
5:22
firefighter? Like how does that kind of work?
5:24
Like where you're like, all right, like I want to, I want to
5:26
become a firefighter now because I want to be on that calendar.
5:28
Like how does it? No, no, it had nothing to do
5:32
with that. It had to do with.
5:34
It was just something that that I'd strive to do in my while I
5:38
was in the military. You know, I thought this is a
5:41
kind of a career path and, and I tried to get on the Houston
5:44
department before I joined and they were not doing any hiring
5:47
for a couple of years. So it was something that I had
5:49
had wanted to do for a long time.
5:51
While I was in the service, I took an EMT course and the, the
5:54
Army put me through that. So I was already EMT certified,
5:57
which didn't really matter when I got hired by the city of Fort
6:01
Worth. They have their own Academy.
6:03
So you do ENT school, then you do fire school and you go right
6:07
into the force and work as vacation relief for the city of
6:11
Fort Worth. So I was very fortunate to get
6:13
the job. I, I, I separated from the army
6:16
on a, on a Saturday and I started the fire Academy on a
6:20
Monday. So it was really, it was really
6:22
a God thing that it really lined up just perfectly.
6:25
If that Academy would have started three days before, the
6:28
week before, they couldn't have hired me because I was still a,
6:30
a soldier. So it just lined up really well.
6:34
So once I got hired on and got out to work and you know, was
6:37
2424 hours on, 48 hours off. So everybody had part time jobs
6:43
back in the 90s and early 2000s, you know, just supplement our
6:46
income. So everybody was working and
6:48
there were lots of guys with truck and trailers had moving
6:51
companies. You know, there was 5 or 6
6:53
moving companies in the department, truck and trailers.
6:55
And that's why I did that for a little while and learned a lot
6:57
from guys like Gerard Flores. Well, great, great guy that I
7:01
learned a lot from. And, and then one day, you know,
7:05
I thought maybe, maybe we can do something a little different.
7:09
And I happen to be at a, a, a race up at Texas Motor Speedway
7:13
with another fireman buddy of mine that did some movement on
7:16
the side as well with the guy. And we met a woman who said that
7:19
she needed to get her house moved like in the next week.
7:23
And we said we can do it. We didn't have any aspirations
7:27
of business. We didn't have a truck, we
7:28
didn't have equipment, We had nothing.
7:30
He had a pickup truck. But Gerard, the guy that we were
7:33
working for, he had a, a loaded outfitted trailer.
7:37
And she says she gave us the opportunity to move and we just
7:41
asked him, hey, will you rent us your trailer with equipment and
7:44
we'll pull it with, with Matt Franks truck and we'll do the
7:47
job. And he said, yeah, no problem.
7:50
So that was our very first job from her and we just, we just
7:54
figured it out. Well, it was incredible because
7:57
she turned that into like 3 or 4 more jobs from friends of hers
8:02
the next couple of weeks. And we just kept, we just kept
8:05
getting that truck and trailer from Gerard and pulling it.
8:08
And that's how it kind of started just without a single
8:10
dollar. And Gerard didn't even charge us
8:12
rent. He said no, no problem.
8:14
Of course we gave him some money, but he wasn't even
8:15
charging us. So it just, it just started
8:19
very, very simply like that. And you know, and after we, we
8:23
did several jobs, I looked at Matt and I said, man, I think we
8:26
can make a business out of this. You know, I said, do you want to
8:28
go in half on our own equipment? And he said, Nah, not
8:31
interested. I said really?
8:34
So I I asked one of the other firemen buddies of mine how you
8:37
wanna go half in on the equipment.
8:39
He said sure and boom, there it was.
8:41
Buy some equipment, start a business, and that was as simple
8:43
as that. You know, when, when you think
8:46
of, you know, a firefighter's position, a lot of, a lot of
8:50
them. And, and even here in Vancouver,
8:52
we always have like an ad out or we kind of tossed, you know,
8:55
the, the words always outgoing. Hey, if you, if you have an off
8:58
day, if you're free, you know, we'd love to have you come work
9:01
for us. And it's great.
9:02
It helps fill the spots. There's always this really great
9:05
sense of discipline and understanding.
9:08
Well, everybody is like clean cut, you know, physically fit
9:11
and able to, you know, have some type of logic and sense of going
9:16
OK, like this is how you move furniture.
9:18
This is what you what you do and what you don't do.
9:21
But did did you sit down with your new partner to go, OK,
9:27
there's actually a much higher profit in what we could do as a
9:32
moving company as opposed to just staying a firefighter
9:34
because as firefighters, you're still paid fairly decent and you
9:37
kind of have still that flexibility of time off time on
9:40
time off. So was that like a big heart
9:44
step or did you at that point gradually go, OK, well, I'll
9:48
still kind of keep my firefighter position, but like
9:50
cut down on shifts because how does that transition look like,
9:54
Especially, you know, when you're trying to maintain a
9:56
lifestyle and you have a business and, or not a business,
10:00
but like you're employed with the fire department and you
10:03
know, you, you know that there's income constant coming in.
10:06
Yeah, well, it wasn't a a hard decision because we just looked
10:10
at it as just some part time work.
10:13
We didn't look at it as building a business that it kind of just
10:17
grew organically and grew naturally as we moved along.
10:21
You know, working 24 on and having 48 off.
10:24
We were on different shifts, so one guy could be at the station
10:28
while the other guy was off, you know, doing what he had to do
10:31
with with moving. But we didn't go into it trying
10:36
to build a big business. We grew it.
10:38
We, we went into it just trying to stay busy and make extra
10:42
money, not, not to create a business and, and take it to
10:46
another level. So that was the kind of the
10:50
mindset, you know, just to just use it as a part time gig on the
10:53
off days. And, but when it started to
10:55
snowball and we started getting busier and busier, that that's
10:59
when it all connected, you know, but all along through it, you
11:02
know, we're about to hit our 25 year anniversary this October.
11:06
So we've been, we've been here for a long time and I thank you
11:09
very much. And I've been retired from the
11:10
department for a couple of years and I did 26 years on the
11:13
department. So the, the whole time that,
11:16
that, that we were doing it, I, I really never considered really
11:21
leaving the department. You know, I always considered
11:25
the firefighting job a mission, just just like we did in the
11:29
Army, you know, and I signed up for a commitment and, you know,
11:32
I know, I know a lot of guys will retire from the department
11:35
or, or, you know, separate early to, to start their other
11:40
businesses or work on their other businesses, But that's not
11:42
something that I really took into consideration.
11:44
I wanted to make it my full time.
11:47
So I could say that that I did that, you know, and it was hard
11:51
from time to time, especially when you're running three and
11:53
four locations and still trying to, to be a professional
11:56
fireman. But you know, with a great team
11:59
and, and what we've built here, wonderful, wonderful people.
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deeper into how you logistically can make this all work,
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especially as you're growing and being part of the fire
14:09
department. But obviously, you know, I'm
14:12
going to have to say with firefighting's finest moving and
14:17
storage, that name kind of came in because you're one of the
14:22
finest firefighters because of the firefighting.
14:25
Like how? How did the the name get
14:27
incorporated with with what you were going to build for a moving
14:31
company? Sure.
14:32
So, so back when we first started, there was a real
14:36
popular company here in Fort Worth and they ran yellow trucks
14:39
and they were called firefighters Sprint moving and
14:43
their trucks looked terrible. The people in the cab did not
14:47
look like people that you wanted in in your house.
14:50
So we knew that there was started by a fireman, but they
14:52
didn't have any firemen working for them.
14:54
And we wanted to, you know, all the, everybody that was working
14:57
for us and, and, and, and us, we were actual firemen and we
15:01
wanted people to know who we were.
15:02
So I did want to come up with a name and, and luckily, you know,
15:07
I gave it some thought. And I know it's a difficult name
15:10
with firefighting's finest, but I'm glad that that name that I
15:15
came up with that name because soon after, as we started to
15:19
grow, it started to affect that company.
15:21
And I got a letter from their attorney for a cease and desist
15:25
using the term firefighter finest.
15:28
And I said, wait a second, you got the wrong name.
15:30
We're firefight means they had trademarked the term firefighter
15:34
with moving in the state of Texas and so it can't be used
15:37
and I didn't know that. So I just was very fortunate
15:40
that I didn't use that. And so that's how we became
15:44
firefighting's finest. You know, as we grew, as we
15:47
continue to grow, that company went out of business.
15:51
So when we were smaller, we were using all firemen.
15:53
It was all off duty firemen because everybody had to work,
15:56
you know, everybody had to work part time jobs.
15:58
That's not the case anymore. It's very rare that a lot of
16:02
these firemen are working part time jobs, especially the
16:04
younger generation. And so we don't have a lot of
16:07
firemen on our trucks anymore, but that's because we
16:09
transitioned years ago to being a professional moving company
16:14
with policies, procedures, culture, you know, rules that a
16:19
lot of firemen, you know, don't want to do on their off time.
16:21
They would prefer to do something else.
16:24
And So what we're known as now is a company that fire
16:27
departments hire from, right? We may not have the firemen on
16:31
the trucks, but we have the people who are becoming firemen
16:34
for other cities. We have four people that work,
16:38
working for our Fort Worth location that are in the hiring
16:40
process right now for the city of Fort Worth to become firemen.
16:43
So the cities know the type of company, these are the policies
16:48
that, that we have in place, the procedures, the hard work it
16:51
takes. And they know if somebody has us
16:55
on their work experience, that they know they're going to be a
16:57
good fireman, they're going to be a high quality person.
17:00
You know, we don't allow tobacco, you know, on our, on
17:02
our trucks anywhere for 20 years, the 1st 20 years of our
17:06
company, we made people be clean shaven to even get on the trucks
17:10
for 20 years. And, and that was because of
17:13
the, the, the experience I had in the Army.
17:15
That was the experience I had in fire department and that, that
17:17
was their requirement. So I just figured, let's make it
17:20
our requirement. So for 20 years we had that once
17:23
you had cold and you couldn't get, you couldn't hire anybody.
17:25
We, we had to change that. But for 20 years, people wanted
17:28
to be part of this team. And that's the step.
17:32
You know, when I tell people and told people back then they said,
17:35
well, I don't care if they're clean shave.
17:36
And I said, you're, you're missing the point here.
17:38
The point is that they would do that step to become part of our
17:42
team. You know, we were running up to
17:44
22 trucks a day here in Fort Worth and everybody was clean
17:47
shaven to do it, you know, So it was a lot of structure here, a
17:52
lot of influence from the fire department for sure.
17:54
A lot of influence from from my, my, my time in the Army as well.
17:59
But you know, that's how kind of we came up with the name.
18:02
If you can, turn your camera a little bit over what's behind
18:05
your wall. OK.
18:07
That is our that is our culture, if you can see that and it
18:10
spells serve. So those are what we what we try
18:18
to operate by. That's what we want to hire for.
18:20
Based on surface safety. Yeah, Yeah.
18:23
So you have safety, excellence, relationships, value and ethics,
18:26
right. And and so we wanna, we wanna
18:29
exude those qualities. Safety, we want to provide
18:32
safety for our employees, our customers and the other people
18:35
out on the road by providing safe equipment.
18:37
So there's always three bullet points to every single one and
18:40
how we, how we instill those in our team and how we show our
18:45
customers and everybody else that we're operating under
18:47
those. And so, you know, number one is
18:51
safety with us, of course, but that is our, that is our
18:54
culture. And how, you know, we believe
18:57
in, in inserting, you know, I think everybody is put here on
19:01
this earth to serve others, not to serve themselves.
19:06
So first and foremost, we serve God, we serve our family and we
19:09
serve others, right. And so we believe that we are a
19:14
customer service company that's providing, moving, moving,
19:19
storage, packing, but we're customer service, we're here to
19:21
serve the customers needs. And you know, I, I know you
19:25
believe in this too, Mark, I know you do.
19:27
And, and, and a lot of quality companies do, but this was
19:30
instilled in us in the Army, and this was in instilled in us in
19:33
the fire department that we, you know, I joined the army to, to
19:36
serve my country. And that's, and that brought me
19:40
the most pride in doing that. When we joined the fire
19:42
department. We're here to serve the citizens
19:45
of Fort Worth and whatever they need, whether it be, and most of
19:48
the time it was their, the worst day of their lives, you know, a
19:51
fire, a car wreck, a drowning, you know, high water rescue,
19:56
whatever. We're there to serve the
19:58
community. And and so that's where we
20:00
instilled that into the moving. You know, because moving is a
20:04
top five most stressful time in people's life that that's a
20:08
proven fact. So you don't know what's going
20:11
on in everybody's life, but you know, it's a stressful time for
20:14
people, you know, so we're here to serve.
20:16
I'm here to serve my employees best that I can so my employees
20:21
can serve our customers. So it's all about serving.
20:24
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20:27
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business to the top of Google. I love that.
22:23
I always, I always find it so interesting when there's moving
22:27
companies out there that do not, you know, they, they say they
22:31
do, but it's not being instilled into the employees and all the
22:36
movers that are going out there, They're reminder of, hey, it's,
22:40
it's, we're in business to serve our clients and it is one of the
22:44
most stressful situations in their lives.
22:47
So let's not add the additional stress.
22:50
And if you, if you can, if you have a good operations and you
22:54
are contacting and communicating with your customer and keeping
22:56
them up to date prior to moving day, there's already so much
23:00
tension that's brought, you know, taken off their plate.
23:02
And then when you have a crew that's showing up clean cut,
23:06
smiling, happy, ready to serve that client, not showing up
23:10
being, you know, pissed off and grumpy because they, you know,
23:13
have to unpack a couple boxes or or move something three times
23:17
for the client. It's you're there to keep them
23:21
happy and just to serve. It's wild when when the guys
23:28
just don't have that expectations and it's even while
23:31
they're when the company allows that to continue.
23:34
Yeah, we, we like to let our customers know that when they
23:38
once they call us and contact us and know that they've booked
23:42
with us, they should receive Peace of Mind.
23:44
And we want to give them Peace of Mind knowing that we're going
23:48
to show up, we're going to be there and give them a great
23:50
experience, you know, and that's one less thing that they have to
23:54
worry about, You know, everything so stressful, you
23:56
know, correlation with the fire department, when people's houses
24:00
burned down, you know, it's just a devastating, devastating loss.
24:04
And you see people just crushed and you think, well, everybody
24:08
got out safe. So that that is the main, you
24:11
know, focus of that. And that's true.
24:13
But what happens is people lose everything that they're
24:16
associated with. All of their identity has just
24:19
been burned to the ground, right?
24:21
And so when you're moving somebody, you have all of their
24:24
contents in your truck, everything that they associate
24:27
themselves with, right? The clothes that they wear, the
24:29
family pictures, the family heirlooms, the chair that
24:33
grandma gave them, everything that means something to them is
24:36
in your truck. And that's, that's one of the
24:38
reasons why it's so stressful. And when your people realize
24:42
that and when you continually talk about that, because there's
24:45
so much change over with your, with your staff, that that is
24:50
something that you continue to bring up.
24:51
And even people that have been here a long time, they need to
24:54
continuously hear that over and over again to understand how
24:57
important of a job that we do, you know, and it really does hit
25:01
home. And they really do take pride
25:05
in, in serving others. They really do.
25:07
And it turns into steps into other careers for our people.
25:11
You know, I've got a, a, a, a doctor that that worked for me
25:15
for a long time. And I saw him at a Christmas
25:17
party this last year. And he said, man, I was kind of
25:21
a handful back then, but I still remember the talks we had.
25:24
And I learned a lot from, from serving others, being a part of
25:28
firefighting's finest in that team.
25:30
And so he takes that with him today.
25:31
And that really, really hit home.
25:33
And it means a lot, you know, So it is carrying over and it is it
25:37
is hitting home with the people here and the team.
25:40
When you were talking earlier about, you know, making it a a
25:44
really smart choice by choosing firefighting's finest compared
25:48
to firefighter mover and storage, did you ever look at
25:52
trying to get that trademark since the business went out?
25:54
I did. Well, I did, you know, and I
25:56
haven't done it in a while, but we did go through the steps with
25:59
my attorney and at the time it was denied.
26:02
So it might be time again to to look at that.
26:06
Yeah. So don't, don't air this.
26:07
Give me a chance to to do to do that again.
26:11
You got about a week, a couple weeks.
26:14
OK, thanks. The the other side of things is,
26:18
you know what I it's, it's always one of those things you
26:20
buy, you buy a new car and now everywhere you go, you see this
26:25
car and on the road before you never saw it.
26:30
Now, especially, you know, within my network and, and doing
26:33
the podcast and, and going to so many conferences, I start to
26:37
realize, you know, as much as there is ABC movers, there are
26:42
so many firefighting firefighter, you know, Firehouse
26:48
fire men like moving in storage companies out there.
26:52
Do you still run into a massive confusion of being included?
26:57
Someone's funny. Aren't you the firefighters out
27:00
here in North Carolina? And aren't you the same ones
27:02
that are over here in Seattle? And oh, do you have multiple?
27:06
Like how, how does that turn out?
27:08
Because I remember talking to someone and I don't know if it
27:12
was you got brought up or another moving company got
27:15
brought up and it was like, oh, there's like these firefighter
27:18
movers in like Texas, but they're not even that great as
27:21
opposed to the other ones that are in this location.
27:24
And I, and it was one of those, it's OK, I'm going to stop.
27:35
So, you know, when you're looking at when you're looking
27:38
at all the different names and, and the all these different
27:43
moving companies, is it a really smart way to go?
27:47
Well, you know, we are firefighting's finest.
27:51
Like there's a massive separation compared to all the
27:54
other firefighting moving companies out there does that,
27:58
no. Well, no, I mean, I love being
28:03
associated with with all the other firemen that are that are
28:05
entrepreneurs that are doing their own thing, you know, and I
28:09
make good connections with them and I welcome all of them over
28:11
to my place so I can give him a tour.
28:14
In fact, David Harmon with the firefighters move you out in
28:18
Kentucky. We we've met in person, we've
28:20
talked and I think he's going to come out for a visit.
28:22
So it's fantastic. I just, you know, clarify who we
28:26
are. I clarify the name of the
28:27
company because people will say we're using the firefighters,
28:31
you know, well, there's, there are a few around here, you know,
28:34
but there's not the finest, you know, there's one finest
28:36
firefighting company and that's us.
28:38
That's right, and that's the, and that's Derek.
28:40
Potter's Company, our trucks are.
28:42
Our trucks are unmistakable too, so you can't miss those.
28:45
Right. I know, yeah.
28:46
They, I, I love how you guys have them wrapped and they, they
28:49
definitely stand out very well. So the, the early days, you
28:54
know, we kind of touched a little bit based on this while
28:56
you're still as a firefighter, You know what, what were you
29:01
trying to figure out in real time?
29:02
What, how did that look like as you go?
29:05
OK, like we have a business here, like we are building this
29:09
company. Things are going out, you know,
29:11
This is what, like the early 2000s, you know?
29:17
Yeah, early 2000 as as we. Yeah, it it, it was several
29:21
years, you know, we started in 2001 and I really didn't, it
29:25
really didn't compute until we got to about 2006.
29:28
And we're running, you know, multi trucks every day where I'm
29:33
working on the staffing, you know, every Sunday night to see
29:36
the availability of the firemen. I would put out messages, hey,
29:41
what days are you available and how many of those would you like
29:45
to work? And that's how I built my
29:47
staffing. And that was the first issue,
29:48
right, the staffing part and and had that down.
29:52
I had that, that zeroed in when we were running three and four
29:55
trucks. It wasn't a problem.
29:56
But but once we started to hit another level, then it took on,
30:01
you know, another meaning on how to get get more workers.
30:04
And what level were you at, you know, five years now in a 2000
30:08
and six 2007? Well, we were doing, you know,
30:12
we were doing $1,000,000 a year, 5-6 years in and that was just
30:17
by accident, you know, so I still remember hitting that
30:21
$1,000,000 mark. But I think, you know, what
30:24
really took us to another level was I had a, an advertising
30:28
person who, you know, back when pay per click was an incredible
30:33
feature and was really helpful to people back in the day, She
30:37
kept enticing me by saying, Hey, this could really grow your
30:41
business. And, and so one day, you know,
30:44
I, I just kept saying no and no. And then we turned on that
30:48
switch and it, I think it doubled our business.
30:51
We went from, you know, running 5 trucks to running 10 trucks
30:55
overnight because of those campaigns.
30:57
And that's how the, that's how those campaigns were back in the
31:00
day. Those paper click campaigns
31:02
don't work like that anymore, but they sure did back then.
31:06
Yeah, I know, which is incredible when you look at that
31:09
and, you know, I feel like everybody that's watching,
31:12
listening from the outside, your growth looks just so smooth.
31:16
Like it's just oh, wow. Like, you know, we we had our
31:18
first customer and then she gave us a bunch of friends.
31:21
We can do this. I just went and grabbed a guy
31:23
and said, do you want to do this together?
31:24
And boom, we did that. And then, you know, the next
31:27
thing, you know, we're doing a million in business.
31:29
Things are growing. I have this easy accessibility
31:33
to a roster of firefighters to come work for me.
31:37
But there's always pressure. Like to me, there's always
31:41
something what almost broke during this growth.
31:44
During the growth, what causes issues is changing the mindset
31:50
of, of your team and the people that are helping you because you
31:54
reach those ceilings, right. And once you hit that mailing
31:58
that million mark, that is a ceiling and you have to break
32:02
through that. And to do that, you have to
32:05
continue to grow and make changes and, and those are
32:08
always the most difficult, always the most difficult
32:10
because you have to get the people to to buy in and believe
32:13
in what you're doing. You're going to have a lot of
32:14
pushback. You know, we're in a, we're in
32:16
one of those phases right now after, you know, we've got 4
32:20
locations during the busy season, we're up to 180
32:23
employees. But we're, we're at a
32:26
breakthrough right now. We're a lot of changes are being
32:28
made so that that happened several times.
32:31
No matter how small you are, no, no matter how big you are,
32:34
you're going to continue to hit those ceilings and have to break
32:36
through and you get a lot of pushback internally.
32:39
But luckily I have a lot of good people that I can lean on, a lot
32:43
of people in Tracy Becks driven group that I rely on, people
32:47
like Justin Hart, people like Brian Yarram, Derek.
32:50
Green shout out. You know, yeah.
32:53
Like wonderful, wonderful people that that I can count on and
32:57
that support me. Those that, that was the biggest
33:00
challenge back then and it still exists today.
33:03
It's amazing how that challenge will continue to come up, but it
33:07
does and everybody goes through it.
33:09
As you continue to grow, if you're not going to grow, you're
33:11
going to die, right? Everybody knows that if you're
33:13
not growing, you're dying. So hitting those ceilings and,
33:16
and breaking through, you know, there could be several different
33:19
factors that come along with those growth phases.
33:23
Early on, it was, it was trying to find people and getting
33:26
people to work more and more to, to, to reach the mission to
33:31
expanding to delegating. Delegating was a big thing for
33:34
me, you know, because everything was set with me.
33:36
And as we grew, I had to, to give one thing over and, and
33:40
give that to somebody else. So those those were big growth
33:43
areas for us, but they still exist today, especially with the
33:47
technology areas today and trying to become more efficient
33:50
using AI. You know that that's a big, a
33:54
big growth phase for us right now.
33:55
But there's always ceilings to breakthrough Mark.
33:58
They're always when when it comes to how you were hiring and
34:03
obviously having the inside with firefighters.
34:07
What's your recommendation to other moving companies that are
34:10
going? I'm having a hard time, you
34:12
know, finding the right movers. You know, we put ads out.
34:17
It's just not working. How how would they go about
34:21
trying to go to their local fire department and go, hey, years
34:26
now, I'd like, you know, here's a poster like how how would they
34:29
do that approach? Who should they talk to?
34:32
How can they make it attractive or an individual that's a
34:36
firefighter is like I got I don't really don't want to do
34:38
moving. Well, hey, Mark, just like I
34:42
said, that's hard for us to do these days.
34:45
You know, people on the departments here aren't looking
34:48
for part time jobs. They may be in people that are
34:50
watching it may be in their local community.
34:52
That'd be a good place to start. But just knocking at the station
34:56
door, because in anybody can go up to the station at anytime.
34:59
Just explaining who they are and, and what they're offering
35:03
and telling them that they they do have the ability to to put
35:07
people to work on their off days is always a possibility.
35:10
But yeah, there's no problem with them going to the station
35:12
and, and, you know, handing out a flyer and, and making it known
35:16
that they that they have some positions available.
35:19
That's always a good place. Another good place to start is
35:23
when they're taking tests. So cities are giving fire
35:27
department tests. Usually it's at one reported
35:30
location that has a mass of people.
35:33
While those people that are taking those tests are are, you
35:35
know, they're already going to have a proper driver's license.
35:38
They're not going to be somebody with a criminal background.
35:41
They're going to be on the up and up to even get to the point
35:45
where they they're allowed to take that test.
35:47
So those people make perfect opportunity to to hire those
35:50
people as employees. And that's going to the city and
35:54
finding out. What's going to the city
35:55
websites and seeing when they're given tests?
35:58
And I'd do it for Police Department tests.
36:00
Two people that are taking Police Department tests, I, I
36:03
would canvas those parking lots when they're taking those tests
36:05
and get them when they're coming out.
36:07
And we've, we've done that before.
36:08
We've done that several times. Myself and the leadership team
36:11
have gone down to the different cities or here and we've
36:14
canvassed. We've surrounded the building
36:16
where they've given the tests and then caught people as they
36:18
come out. I love that.
36:20
Not so much these days. You have the first location in
36:24
Fort Worth. You've grown this company up.
36:27
You are now up to, you know what 22 trucks at at that one
36:31
location. How many trucks are you running
36:33
just in Fort Worth? Yeah.
36:35
Well, in Fort Worth, yeah, we've gotten up to about 22 trucks.
36:38
That was our Max. You know, we've we've decided to
36:40
change what we were going to do with rates and and come down off
36:43
the trucks a little bit. But yeah, we were up to 22
36:46
trucks at one point in time here in Fort Worth, but we had opened
36:50
up the other location before we even got to that point.
36:52
Where when do you get, when do you get to that point and how
36:56
does it look like when you started scaling?
36:58
Because now you're at 4 locations.
37:00
So what did you want to make sure that was in place at the
37:05
home base, at office location in order to open up another
37:09
location? And do you keep everything not
37:13
under a franchise model? Is it all just it's owned by the
37:17
company and you have like GM's in place?
37:19
What? What was your like the process
37:22
especially to open up the first, the second location and then
37:25
when? How easy was it to open up the
37:27
3rd and 4th? Yeah.
37:29
So the process was for us, the second location was Houston.
37:32
And it was a natural process because it was my brother.
37:35
My brother said, hey, I need to do something on my off time too.
37:38
I'd kind of like to start something.
37:40
And so I helped him. And as we were getting that off
37:43
the ground, I said, you know, maybe we'll just envelope you
37:47
into our name and that way you use our policies, our
37:51
procedures, our SOP's and, and that will help you start.
37:55
And, and so it was a, you know, a switch over from him wanting
37:59
to start his own thing to starting a location for
38:01
firefighting's finest. And that's how that started.
38:04
So that was kind of naturally built in being that he was my my
38:08
brother. Younger.
38:09
Older. He's my older brother.
38:13
Older brother And how, how? How's that done?
38:15
It was a struggle. He, he moved away from the
38:17
company a couple of years ago and, and now we've got a great
38:22
guy in place down there who came from the warehouse here in here
38:26
in Fort Worth. But I love my brother.
38:28
He did a great job while he was with us.
38:30
But you know, business is business, family is family and I
38:33
can separate the two easily. But it, there's a little bit of
38:37
a strain on the other locations. You know, after Houston was open
38:41
a few years, we decided to open Dallas and Dallas was a little
38:46
easier for us because we opened it from the Fort Worth location.
38:50
We would price it as if the guys were leaving out of Dallas and
38:55
see how we could grow it. We would just we took the extra
38:58
hit on the expense and running cruise from Fort Worth over to
39:01
Dallas. But having.
39:03
A. How long does that drive?
39:04
You can. If you were to drive from
39:06
downtown Fort Worth to downtown Dallas with nobody on the road,
39:09
you could make it in about 22 minutes.
39:12
OK. But realistically?
39:13
Realistically during the day you could probably make it in about
39:16
32 minutes and just regular regular flow of traffic you.
39:20
Can't. So that's not that's not even
39:22
that that bad, even if you factor in I'm thinking like an
39:24
hour, hour and a half. So you're just really eating
39:26
that extra half an hour drive time.
39:29
Well, yeah, we were eating the extra drive time and, and that
39:32
until we got established over there and then we started and
39:35
then we started a location. So that was our third location
39:39
and and that one's doing great. And then our fourth location was
39:41
Austin and that was a little bit more challenging.
39:45
You know, everybody that works for the company has worked on
39:48
the back of the truck. You know, even my brother, when
39:50
he started it down there, he'd worked for me up here from time
39:54
to time. So everybody, everybody that
39:56
works for Firefighting's Finest has worked their way up the
39:59
ladder. So what we did was we we started
40:02
a training program here in Fort Worth and one of the one of the
40:05
men that had been here for quite a while we trained.
40:08
Your locally before we sent him down to Austin to to open up
40:12
that location and that's and there's still a smaller
40:15
location. You know, they're running I
40:17
think today they're running 5 trucks.
40:19
They're on a good growth spurt right now.
40:22
But every location I started as its own corporation.
40:28
So we're we don't use a franchise model.
40:32
They're all firefighting's finest, but I wanted them all
40:34
separated financially. And so I just set it up just for
40:39
separation, just for protection and that's the way that it is.
40:43
We also have a corporate corporation, so the four
40:46
locations pay into the corporate location corporation and that
40:51
holds a sales team. We use a a call centre sales
40:54
model. So all my sales guys are out
40:56
here in Fort Worth and all the calls for all the locations come
40:59
into here and then and all of the locations are run by a GM.
41:04
So they all have their own management structure.
41:07
All of those GM's, like I said, worked on the truck.
41:10
So we have the four locations, the locations have 4, the four
41:13
GM's and, and they run their own locations, but they do run them
41:18
the same way. We all follow the same policies,
41:22
the same procedures, the same SOP's.
41:24
And that's the important part. And other people that I talk to
41:29
at, at are driven meetings that have multiple locations know
41:32
that and, and they've, they've, that's how they've opened up the
41:36
other locations by doing the same things the same way, you
41:40
know, all the trucks should look the same no matter what location
41:43
they're at. The sales process is the same no
41:46
matter what city you're selling for.
41:48
So as long as you've got that blueprint and that playbook
41:53
that's set in stone and, and you can hand that off to people that
41:56
you trust, then then that will help you become successful and
42:01
allow you to open up other locations.
42:05
You know, Mark, you know, this though it all, it all rides on
42:09
that person, you know, cause everybody's putting into, to
42:12
place a great system these days. There's so many people out there
42:15
helping others like yourself and Steven, that, that help people
42:19
put in a great system. So it's about the right people
42:22
and having that person that's, that's trustworthy, that, that's
42:25
a person of integrity, you know, that believes in the culture.
42:29
And when you have that person, that person that's willing to
42:32
serve, then they can become a company person and, and believe
42:36
in the total picture. Did you put any kind of perks
42:40
KPI things in place for each GM at the different locations?
42:45
They're following the they're following your systems, they're
42:47
following the policies. They're they're making sure that
42:49
the culture is the same fit at each one of these different
42:52
cities. And I mean blessed Texas's heart
42:55
in the sense that, you know, those are such major cities that
43:00
have constant growth in population and, and, you know,
43:04
people that are moving on on a steady basis as opposed to, you
43:09
know, some of the smaller states or locations where, you know,
43:13
you want to expand, you want to open up.
43:14
And I always just think of, you know, where I'm situated and go,
43:18
well, you know, in 1/2 an hour I'm, I am at a different city,
43:21
but they're not major metropolitan cities.
43:26
They're like small hubs and nectars.
43:28
You know that. Yeah, sure, they're they're
43:30
they're there, but it's a much, it's a harder growth model to
43:35
go, OK, great. I'm gonna have four or five
43:37
locations, everything else. And I don't wanna try and get
43:39
off topic here, but do you, do you then try and put in place,
43:44
you know, OK, we these are the targets.
43:46
This is what we need to hit you. You get some type of incentive
43:49
based on these gems that are going man, I could just, you
43:52
know, start my own or like, I kind of want to have that
43:54
franchise model and, you know, do I get a percentage for all
43:57
the work I'm building, building, you know, the the owners up here
44:01
in Houston? How does that look like?
44:04
Yeah, no, all the GM's have a profit bonus in place.
44:09
It's hard then when profitability is down.
44:12
That's why Tracy Becks Group is so important to help with
44:15
profitability. So yeah, I I want to make sure
44:18
that the GM's are compensated well, but the but the location
44:22
has to be making money first and foremost.
44:24
Secondly, you know talking to Kurt with Max movers another
44:29
shout out. Shout out to Kirk.
44:31
Kirk, he's smart dude, smart dude.
44:33
And and he told me that that he does something off gross gross
44:37
profitability. And so I'm, I'm looking forward
44:39
to talking to him more and learning more about that.
44:41
We do a net profit, but I also look to try to do stuff through
44:46
the year as well, putting safety programs in place and when they
44:50
meet certain markers on safety program, there should be
44:52
compensation there. Any anything that you can come
44:57
up with that helps your business take the next step or to
45:02
improve? I believe you set markers and
45:04
should compensate the GM's for that.
45:08
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today. No, I'm going to flip, flip over
46:07
to the fact that, you know, your involvement with the ATA and the
46:11
MSC, you know, basically working on behalf of the movers across
46:16
the industry. It is something to me that would
46:20
not be unknown to anybody considering if they get to know
46:25
you, Derek, of how you serve and where you serve.
46:30
And to then, you know, when I started understanding your
46:34
involvement within this organization and, and, and how
46:39
you're trying to serve now, the movers in your community and
46:42
across, you know, the United States to go, hey, we need to
46:46
get this done. Why was this important to you,
46:50
and at what level did you want to make sure that you saw
46:54
change? Yeah.
46:56
No, I'm glad you brought that up because, you know, it started at
47:00
the local over here with SW Movers Association and getting
47:03
involved with them. But it took several years of
47:06
being in that association to realize the importance of the
47:09
association here on the local level, a state level, not only
47:14
politically, but fighting, you know, fraud in the moving
47:19
industry and, and realizing the effects that that so many things
47:25
have on our business, whether it's tort reform and how it can
47:29
affect our insurance rates. You know, you get a lot of a lot
47:33
of company owners in different groups complaining about their
47:35
insurance rates. Well, until you attack the
47:38
source of those, no change is gonna come, come out.
47:41
You know, you're still gonna, you're still going to have high
47:44
prices when it comes to renewal time, right.
47:47
But, but being involved with SMA really helped me take the next
47:50
step to realize how important it was to to be involved to make
47:54
those trips to Austin to visit with our state lawmakers so that
47:59
we can affect change here locally in Texas.
48:02
And once that happened, you know, I've always been, we've
48:04
always had a company been involved on the, on the national
48:08
level as well, when it was AMSA and now ATA, MSC and now with me
48:12
serving on the board and becoming more involved with our
48:14
call on Washingtons and, and involved with committees.
48:18
It shows just where the industry stands and how much work really
48:22
other people do behind the scenes to better the industry.
48:27
You know, it's, it's great how other, other owners are helping
48:31
everybody, everybody else, the small owner that's growing with
48:35
their company. But it's, it's important to to
48:38
realize how much work happens behind the scenes to, to get
48:41
things happen, happening in the industry specific for us.
48:46
You know, if we don't have people fighting for industry
48:49
than our companies are just going to go downhill.
48:52
Our companies are going to suffer because of what's going
48:54
on. You know, everybody saw that
48:56
that's involved with the, the military moving, you know, and,
49:00
and in that space, you know, with that award was was given to
49:04
a single entity and the stressors and the issues that
49:08
happened in the industry that took over, you could see how
49:12
important it was to get to DC to talk to those people.
49:16
And it actually affected change. You know, so when you're when
49:20
we're having those meetings with lawmakers and it turns into a
49:24
lawmaker Co sponsoring or authoring a bill that could
49:28
possibly turn into legislation that helps our industry, then
49:31
you know that that that you're doing the right thing.
49:34
And so it was a a few steps at a time to get involved with that.
49:39
But but once you are, it can take hold and and you realize
49:42
that that they're the change can take place.
49:46
You know, there are a lot of people have a really negative
49:49
look on it. You know, and I try to look at
49:52
it at the other way that says we have to go meet with those
49:55
people. Whether you like those people or
49:57
not, they're the people that are, that are setting the, the
50:00
bills in place and making the laws.
50:02
So it's better that we go and meet with them.
50:05
You know, and during those meetings we'll hear and, and,
50:08
and, you know, either the, the congressman themself or their
50:12
staff will say, well, the other side has been here.
50:15
It's a good thing that you were here.
50:16
Now we can hear your story. They put the story from the
50:20
company owners into perspective and it really helps moving
50:24
legislation and helping things. Well, I think it's always, it's,
50:28
it's so important because a lot, a lot of us out there when a
50:33
topic gets brought up, a conversation gets brought up and
50:38
are naiveness sets in place and we just snap back and we think
50:43
we have the answer. We, we say our opinions.
50:46
And then you realize down the line as you educate yourself on
50:50
that actual topic or that conversation.
50:52
Oh, wait a second. I actually regret saying those
50:55
things or I regret actually having those opinions because I,
50:59
I had an opinion, but I wasn't educated on that opinion.
51:02
And I think when it comes down to individuals like yourself
51:07
that are standing in front of lawmakers and letting the movers
51:11
in the in the in the transportation industry have a
51:13
voice for individuals that don't know what's going on or don't
51:18
know how it's being run or what needs to be changed or what what
51:21
needs to happen. And educating them, it's a game
51:25
changer because you start, then they understand, they say, oh,
51:29
wait a second. And the light bulb goes on going
51:31
OK, yeah, we actually, this actually makes sense.
51:33
We didn't know this before, but now it makes sense.
51:35
So I mean, you know, I, I think many of us tip our hat to
51:39
yourself and those that are on the front lines in Washington to
51:44
make change. Yeah, and it's really, it's
51:47
really helpful to have people with the American Trucking
51:49
Association leading, leading this charge, you know, so
51:53
knowledgeable, so helpful, so welcoming.
51:55
When we go to DC, it's it's really great.
51:58
And, and also our SMA staff, you know, when we take those trips,
52:03
I take the trips with Tech Texas Trucking Association to DC, just
52:07
some wonderful, wonderful people that, that really work hard for
52:10
the industry as a whole. So I'm really happy that that
52:12
that that I can be involved in that.
52:14
What are some of the biggest issues right now that movers are
52:16
facing? Hey, always, always the bad
52:20
actors, right? Always the bad actors that are
52:23
in the industry that, that company owners like us and, and
52:26
those watching here are trying to, to rid the industry of and,
52:30
and given the authorities more power to, to do something about
52:36
those bad actors. Also tort reform.
52:38
You know, we're, we're not, we're just trying to have a
52:40
level playing field when it comes to the court cases.
52:43
We're not trying to to say that trucking moving company owners
52:47
shouldn't be responsible for things that happen, but but
52:51
we're trying to to get it more visible, more out in the open.
52:53
You know, there's a lot of backroom dealings done with
52:56
private money behind these lawsuit, lawsuit abuse.
53:00
And so there there's a lot of legislation involved with tort
53:03
reform and those directly affect moving company owners every
53:06
single day with the insurance premiums, with the nuclear
53:11
verdicts that will put a mom and pop business out of out of
53:14
business. You know, so those are, those
53:17
are a few of the things that we're working on, you know,
53:19
truck driver shortage, which, you know, that's been something
53:22
that that's been attacked, especially with some of the, the
53:28
illegal driving that's going on that, that we've been attacking
53:31
that as well. Truck parking is 1 as well.
53:34
Truck parking is important that people don't realize it's, it's
53:38
caused some, some bad accidents when those trucks, they're
53:41
coming up on hours of service and they, they don't have
53:44
anywhere to park. They may pull over on an exit
53:46
ramp on the side right there. And that's one of the instances
53:49
that a, that a car ran into the back of a truck that was on the
53:52
side because there wasn't sufficient parking and killed
53:54
some people. So that's some legislation that
53:57
has taken place, some money has been put aside to help a truck
54:00
parking. So there's several of those
54:02
things that we're working on right now.
54:04
Cheers. What should more owners be
54:06
paying attention to? I, I believe right now that, you
54:11
know, and I'm, I'm still learning, but they should pay
54:13
attention to, to what's going on in the AI space and the
54:16
technology space to make sure that they don't get left behind.
54:20
That's what we're doing right now.
54:22
Make sure we're not getting left behind in that space.
54:25
There's so much that you can do with the technology part of it
54:28
to become more efficient, to become better at what you do, to
54:32
make the processes and procedures that you have in
54:35
place to make those better, to give you more oversight, to make
54:39
you a safer operating company. You know, I believe that
54:44
everybody should have inward and outward facing cameras.
54:46
I believe everybody should have an automated safety program
54:49
using those cameras and use it, use driver scorecards to the
54:53
best of your ability. And that's all has to do with
54:55
technology. I love that Derek, we are at a
54:59
point now where it's called on Mondays, the box of truth.
55:02
I'm going to hit you with two questions.
55:04
No fluff. You got a minute to answer it
55:06
and this is this is the box are. You ready?
55:09
I'm ready, man. Bring it.
55:11
All right, when you're by yourself, thinking about your
55:16
business, what's the one thing that actually keeps you up at
55:20
night right now? What I'm falling short on and
55:23
that's that's an every night deal.
55:26
You know what? How what I can change, how can I
55:32
change things to become a better employer for our people, Number
55:37
one, to make it a smoother working environment for our
55:42
people. So that will keep me up every
55:46
single night. I'll think about what what I
55:48
could have done better that day and what I can change tomorrow.
55:52
So that's something that I still think about after 25 years.
55:55
Do you find as a business owner that you have learned to become
55:59
a better delegator or do you still hold a lot on your.
56:03
Shoulder no, you know, unfortunately I, I delegated a
56:07
lot and I have in the past, but with that delegation, you put a
56:12
lot of trust in people. And when you put that trust in
56:16
people, it's important to trust people, but you must verify at
56:21
the same time. Trust but verify.
56:23
And so the delegation was happening at, at a really good
56:26
level, but maybe I wasn't verifying as I should have,
56:29
which I'm doing more of now. And you know, you just got to
56:34
find the right people that you delegate to and the right team
56:37
and put your trust in those people, but you've got to verify
56:43
at the same time. You can't just delegate and
56:45
walk. Away.
56:46
That's correct. Yeah, if someone followed you
56:50
for a week as an owner, what would surprise them most about
56:55
what it really takes to run your company?
56:58
Well, I think that people might be surprised at the the small
57:02
details that I want to be involved in right now.
57:06
You know, people say that you don't want to work in the
57:10
business, you want to work on the business.
57:11
And of course I believe in that. I believe in that you need to
57:14
separate and work on the business, not in.
57:16
But there is a level of small details that I still like to be
57:21
a part of. And especially now when I'm
57:24
making a lot of changes in instituting change and breaking
57:27
through the barrier, people might be surprised at at what I
57:31
want to be involved in right now at A at a smaller detailed
57:35
level. And that will change soon, but
57:37
right now it's not. Yeah, someone told me that you
57:41
were finding out, you know, the exact balloons that you were
57:44
going to use at a summer BBQ, you know, So it's fine details
57:48
that you really want to be involved.
57:49
In. That's false.
57:51
That's false. Yeah, that was a false false.
57:55
Problem. That's funny.
57:55
Though situation look for everybody here.
58:01
I mean, this episode shows something that most people don't
58:04
realize. Growth that looks simple is
58:08
built on discipline that you don't see a lot, that you don't
58:13
see the amount of sleepless nights, small details that Derek
58:18
talked about having trust in the employees and the management
58:24
team to take on more responsibility.
58:28
And you have a, a core, you know, background for your
58:35
company that is built on a culture to serve.
58:38
And when you have the discipline and you have embedded into all
58:43
the employees to serve your customer, you know, with safety,
58:47
respect, resilience, excellence, like everything you can think of
58:52
when it comes down to defining what that looks like for you as
58:56
an individual, it can it can look really easy as you grow it,
59:00
it can make that happen quite effort effortlessly because you
59:06
start realizing we're we're growing because we are good.
59:10
We are growing because we actually have the right people
59:13
in place. We have a great culture within
59:16
our organization and it is making it easier because we have
59:20
the right management, the right people, the right hires in place
59:24
to do this. It also doesn't come super easy.
59:27
And you know, we heard from Derek earlier today that, you
59:31
know, even having family members at different locations doesn't
59:35
come without stipulations, without problems, without any
59:39
kind of headaches, just like as if you were hiring a friend to
59:42
manage another location, just like if it was someone that you
59:46
brought up within the first location.
59:48
You said you will be a great GM. We're going to put you over
59:51
here. But unless you have, you know,
59:54
the systems in place, unless you are setting down proper factors
59:59
like Derek said. Have the trust, but are you
1:00:03
verifying just because you open up more locations?
1:00:08
Are you verifying that they are doing it?
1:00:10
This is why people have certain scorecards and things in place
1:00:14
before it. And if you are not ready for it,
1:00:16
do not think about opening up that second location because you
1:00:19
feel fast look like, you know, it could fail, it could be a
1:00:22
success, but you're putting a lot more stress on.
1:00:25
And the and the guy that has no hair compared to the guy that
1:00:28
does still have hair and is as good looking as Mr. Potter here.
1:00:32
You know, you can see that he's done it on a smart growth where
1:00:36
this guy has just, you know, pulled out his hair out of
1:00:40
stress and lack of SOP's back in the day.
1:00:42
So it can happen. Action items.
1:00:47
These action items in this full wrap is brought to you by
1:00:50
readyrolls.com. You can apply all of this.
1:00:55
You can see growth by having proper virtual assistants,
1:00:59
proper VA's that are working behind the scenes that are
1:01:03
helping and assisting those core management members within your
1:01:08
organization. So find VA today, go to
1:01:10
rerolls.com. Here's your action items.
1:01:13
Build structure before scaling. Be honest about your readiness.
1:01:17
Develop leaders early on. Find those leaders and stay
1:01:21
consistent and your execution. And I love, I absolutely love
1:01:25
and I hope there's a take away from everybody that says get
1:01:31
part of your communication, get part of your association.
1:01:34
If there's an association in your state, be part of it and
1:01:38
help see the change and be part of that growth.
1:01:40
And make sure that you are attending the MSC event every
1:01:45
year. It's not just for the dinosaurs
1:01:48
that you think are still, you know, all the van lines that are
1:01:51
out there. And it's not just an independent
1:01:54
conference. It is about unity and about
1:01:57
sharing ideas and taking those ideas from individuals like
1:02:03
Derek that's been doing it for 25 years as opposed to the guy
1:02:06
that's been doing it for 25 months.
1:02:08
You're gonna learn something. You're gonna and you and you
1:02:11
hopefully should walk away with new relationships and new
1:02:13
friendships. That's the way it works.
1:02:15
Derek, I just rambled on here. You sat there so patiently
1:02:19
listened to me and these action items.
1:02:22
Thank you so much for coming on the.
1:02:24
Show Mark, thank you, man. I really enjoyed it.
1:02:26
I, I look forward to seeing your, your podcasts all the time
1:02:31
and take great value out of those.
1:02:33
So you're doing a wonderful, wonderful job for the industry
1:02:36
and I thank you for that. Well, and we appreciate you,
1:02:39
Derek, and thank you so much. And I'm sure there's gonna be a
1:02:43
follow up episode coming down in about 6 months, seven months
1:02:46
again, because we'd love to have you back on to kind of maybe
1:02:49
fine tune it. Maybe it'll be a move fight.
1:02:50
Wednesday's episode with with me and Steven Reed, which we gotta
1:02:55
make sure that you're on all those platforms.
1:02:56
Fantastic. Can't just be on a panel in a
1:02:58
Monday if you're not on. A Wednesday.
1:03:00
I'll be ready anytime man, call me anytime.
1:03:02
I appreciate it. All the kind words.
1:03:04
Thank you very much. Thank you for all those that are
1:03:07
watching, listening. I always ask at the very end,
1:03:11
hit the subscribe button, hit the like button.
1:03:13
If you get a 2 seconds hit that even left five star that you see
1:03:17
on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts and shoot a review comments,
1:03:23
please comment. We can't just leave Nickel
1:03:26
Murdoch to be the only commenter from Murdoch's moving and
1:03:28
storage that's out there. Shout out to you, Nick Cal, my
1:03:31
number one absolute fan that is always consistent and always
1:03:35
sharing what he's learned in his takeaways from the episodes.
1:03:40
But shoot your comments, I'd love to know, have you worked
1:03:43
with Derek in the past? Have you met him?
1:03:44
Do would you like to meet him? We'll have his contact details,
1:03:47
his LinkedIn profile as well on in the description to connect.
1:03:52
Maybe do a site visit, maybe check them out.
1:03:54
Go, go see as you see if if you are interested in also being
1:03:58
part of a association within your community or if you are
1:04:01
listening to this and you're in Texas and you have never been to
1:04:05
an association, reach out to Derek.
1:04:08
I'm sure that he can guide you in the right direction and make
1:04:11
sure that you can get involved today.
1:04:13
So stay, move, fight everybody, and take care.
1:04:18
Thank you, Derek.