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How A Dog Trainer Built A Business By Outworking Everyone — with Kris Morrill · Epic Entrepreneurs

• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: All right, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Cliff McCray, filling in for Bill Gilliland with your local business training and coaching firm, action coach for business growth partners.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to have Chris Morrill with Revolutionary Canine as the focus for our Epic Entrepreneurs podcast episode today.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, Chris, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself and your company and what primary products or services you offer the community.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: All right, sounds good.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Cliff, first off, I just want to say thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be on the podcast.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for highlighting local businesses and things of that nature.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: It really means a lot that uh that we have that kind of support from our community here in Western Carolina.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: But as you said, I I do own Revolutionary Canine.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: It is a dog training company.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: We currently now have two locations.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: We started at our flagship location in 2018 in South Georgia.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the city is Albany, Georgia, to be exact.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And from there, we we service the majority of the Southeast, North Florida, uh, Alabama, South Georgia, obviously.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Then we started to realize that we were getting for dog getting dogs from other parts of the country versus just our immediate region.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we were looking at the idea of expansion.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then around the 2001 mark, we decided to purchase 16 acres here in Western Carolina and just been kind of off and running since.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: But this has definitely been something that has been a fun journey, the build.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is my second business as an entrepreneur.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I first had a gym business, and I was actually in the fitness industry for about 15 years before jumping back into dog training.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: So the build is always fun, you know, the day-to-day.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh something in the dog training business that I like to tell people it's it's the same thing every day, but very different.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: So, how's the difference in weather between the locations?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Tremendous.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Tremendous.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Tremendous, man.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's one of those things that you can wake up in South Georgia, throw a hoodie on, go outside, and and uh maybe shiver for about 10 minutes, and out of nowhere you're sweating bullets.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: So the summers in Albany, Georgia are absolutely brutal.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: They can get anywhere between 98 and 102 degrees.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the the heat index is much higher.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't care what you say, man.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: If the weatherman says, hey, it's 92, but it feels like 105, it's 105.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm not, I don't get into some semantics of it, but you literally can go outside and you just have gnats ice skating on your eyeballs all day long and just sweating profusely.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then North Carolina, you wake up in the morning and you might be really chilly.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: It could be, you know, 32 degrees, 38 degrees.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then by the time 11 o'clock hits, you're it's nice hoodie weather.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's no gnats.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's it's just it's great.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: So the winters in North Carolina, much more harsh than the winters in South Georgia, but definitely the summers in South Georgia trump the summers in uh in North Carolina by a long shot.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I can definitely see the mystique behind people wanting to come up here during the summer and then go back down to Florida for the wintertime or South Georgia for the wintertime, because uh the winters up here are are rather brutal, they're gloomy, but but again, you cannot, you you just you uh you can't go wrong in Western Carolina in the summertime.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, I agree with that.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: So if you had to start your business from square one, would you do anything differently?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, because I I truly feel that every decision that we make lands us in the place that we are.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: So there's there's with any any business, whether it's dog training, whether it's fitness, uh, whether it's a you know a service industry of lawn care or plumbing or or whatever, I think every business grows at the pace that it's supposed to.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning every decision that I have made up to this point has given me the knowledge, it's given me the uh maybe the mental uh and physical fortitude to uh uh be privileged to do what I'm doing today.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if I would do anything differently.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: I guess if you told me that if I could take a blue pill and go back in time and know everything that I know now, would I do some things differently?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think we would all look at our businesses and say, I would probably do some things differently because I have made a lot of, I'm not gonna say I've made a lot of poor decisions.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just say I've learned a lot over the last seven years with the dog training industry alone that I could have probably foregone and not spent money on certain things that I know would not be beneficial in the long run.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I would, at the end of the day, I would say, no, I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to go back with a a f a clean slate with the same amount of knowledge I had.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: But if I could go back with the same knowledge I have now, I yeah, I think everybody would agree that they would go back and change a few things.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I really like where we're at right now.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: I like, I as I said previously, I love the build.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I love getting up every morning and seeing how I can create something new, whether that be a new revenue stream, new, new way to get out in front of people, new way to help the clientele that we currently have.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think I would do much differently having having had that opportunity.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: All right, great.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, what would you say are your the biggest things you've learned um as an owner and employer since you started your business?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Since I've started this particular business, I would say that dealing with live animals is a completely different monster than anything else.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that you have to surround yourself with good people.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: You have to not you have to get up and put on your boots every single day with the intent of being productive.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: There are no, it doesn't matter.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Dogs don't care if you don't feel good, dogs don't care if you didn't get enough sleep the night before, dogs don't care if you had to travel, if you uh again, if you were up with a screaming baby or anything, they don't care because they still have to eat, they still have to go outside, use the bathroom, they still have to be clean.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so caring for animals, I would say would be would be that for me.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's just uh a huge difference between this and anything else.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I tell that to my people that attention to detail can make or break a business easily.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: But in the dog world, when you're dealing with live animals, it every day has to be a, you have to be on your game every single day of the week because the the dogs they can't take care of themselves.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like we own an antique shop where if somebody doesn't show up and you know thirty until 30 minutes later, it's not that big of a deal.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's it is a huge deal.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to make sure that everyone is on the same page, everyone knows what their schedule is, everyone knows what's what is expected of them.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and that would that would be it for me as far as the dog training, this business in particular.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, what are some common misconceptions about running a business and how do you address them?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think the biggest common um misunderstanding of running your own business is the fact that you get to make your own schedule.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I will I will be talking to other people that they may work for a bigger company or a larger organization, and they say, you know, it must be nice.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that everybody prefaces everything they want to, you know, compliment you about or, you know, lack thereof with the it must be nice, almost like we business owners have this silver spoon that um that we don't have to get up and and work our 80 hours a week, or we don't we can make our own schedule.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's the biggest misconception.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think people look at business owners as the quote unquote bosses or the kings of their little kingdom, and they don't really do that much work.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: They get to make their own schedule, they get to go and take uh take exotic trips and and all this kind of stuff.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And and I guess uh to some extent, depending on what kind of business you're in, that may or may not be true.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: But from the leadership standpoint where I'm at, I pride myself on leading by example.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a huge misconception in the in the business world, is that people that have the outside.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I look at business owners as ducks on the pond.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you look at that duck, you can see that duck is swimming effortlessly.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like they're just floating on top of the water.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: But if you were to look underneath the water, you would see the the duck's feet just going a thousand miles an hour because they're they're fighting against current, they're fighting against things that's going on.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're really, they're dedicated in getting to the position or the uh the destination that they're they're trying to get to, and they're going full steam ahead.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a business owner.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that would be one of the largest misconceptions of a good business owner, anyway, is the fact that we get to make our own schedules.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: We get a pretty lax schedule, we have people that we pay to do stuff for us, and and that's not the case at all.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: I can't speak for every business owner out there.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: I can't speak for every entrepreneur, but I can speak for myself, and that is that is very far from the truth.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, no, love it, love it.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do you address uh, you know, vacations or how do you handle them actually?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, to be honest with you, I don't get to take a ton of vacations.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, just giving you an example as far as Christmas is concerned, we have two properties, we have a staff, and it just so works out where staff want to take.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Christmas is on the same day for everybody.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not like a birthday or, you know, a family vacation.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Christmas is on these same days.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't, we don't take Christmases off.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Our our staff can take Christmas off if they would like.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I'll get up first thing in the morning, go out and and work every dog, get every dog out, make sure they're clean, make sure their crates are clean, make sure their kennels are clean, make sure they get fresh water, make sure they eat when they are when they're accustomed to eating.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh those things just have to happen.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And again, that's the difference between running a business that has live animals to tend to versus running an antique shop or you know, an art gallery or something like that.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you have to take all of that in consideration, and you don't you don't get vacations like your your normal your normal jobs that don't deal with live animals.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we allow for our staff to take vacations if they want, and we just we we eat it ourselves, and that's just that's just how it is.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: But again, lead by example.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I have no problem getting out, and I I can assure you that there's not one person that works for us that will not tell you that, man, Chris, for a 47-year-old guy, he crushes it every single day because I that's just in my DNA, and I think that's in every good business owner's DNA is to try to outwork those around you.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a competition for me every day.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I want to outwork everyone that works here.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of a it's kind of a crazy way back to that first question about what's the misconception of running a business is I want to outwork my employees.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I want them to see me grinding it out and doing the things that um that then that will inevitably, if they're the right person, that will inevitably push them to be better themselves.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great answer.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so what have you attributed your growth to so far in your business?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: My business specifically, being able to understand people.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the biggest downfalls, I would say, of the dog training industry or dog industry uh as a whole is the majority of people that are really good with dogs are not good at all with people.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because they can take a dog and they can do these magical things with this dog, but when it comes time to relay that information to the owner, they're they they really don't have that skill set.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And someone like me, and I'm not saying I do it the best at by any stretch of imagination, however, I have had so much experience in the service industries from a retail standpoint or from the fitness business where I was constantly one-on-one with someone.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that I attribute my success or the success of this company by one hard work, uh, good work with what we do.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you can't be just good with people.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be good at your craft as well.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: We are very good at training dogs.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: We understand canine behavior.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: We have, I would be embarrassed to tell you how much money I have spent on education just in for dog training alone.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: But all of that would be fine and good, but would not work out as well if we were not able to communicate that information to the dog owner.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, I don't need another fluffy.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need another rip.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: I need a client that can take that dog and make that dog look as good, if not better, than I can make that dog look.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's that's that would be, I would say, one of the biggest attributes to our success is the ability to teach the other end of the leash, not just the the the end of the leash that has the paws on the ground.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: So how do you balance your personal life with the demands of running your business?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Man, what's that?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Personal life, yeah.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the thing, you know, I again, when it when it all goes down, when it all falls, uh, when all the dust settles, I'm still going to be there editing videos, I'm still gonna be editing pictures, I'm still going to be doing uh an online class or setting up the next thing that I'm doing, answering emails, answering phone calls.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm I still do that.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I I call that the you know the 501.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like I clock in at 501.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I'm at the kennel at seven o'clock in the morning, uh staff starts, excuse me, staff starts rolling in from there.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: We we close our doors at five o'clock, and then I clock in, right?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: So then I'm doing all of the other stuff that did not get handled during the day.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I don't like where a particular dog is at.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I get that dog back out and we work.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I work that dog until I get to a point where I'm saying, okay, this is this is good for this particular dog for the night.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then I go into the other stuff.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: So personal life and business life, they all kind of mesh together.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my fiance, who will uh be my wife in about 10 days, understands that the the business is the life.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And although we're not, you know, 100% just grinding it out every single day, every minute of the day with dogs, it I you still have to have that mindset of uh of work.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, we'll go out and we'll we'll have a nice dinner, but then I'll come back and let dogs out.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or we'll maybe we'll we'll set it up with staff, or we'll take a few days to go do something here and there.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of our quote unquote vacation trips are wrapped around maybe a seminar that I'm teaching or a clinic that I'm going to as a student.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it all it all kind of intertwines.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't, I don't look at, and it's and it may not be the most healthy thing, but I'm I'm still in that era of growth.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to know everything about the entire aspect of the business that I have going on.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: So in order to achieve that, there's really not a ton of you, you'll you would never see me going like, hey, I'm just gonna take the week off and go to the beach and lounge around.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's not even my style.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think I would probably be in a uh deep depression at the end of that quote unquote vacation because I I I enjoy every aspect of the work.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: And congratulations, by the way.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: You said you're gonna get married here in 10 days, you said.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh, you know, it's um it's it's fun, man.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh, you know, later in life, once you you kind of realize, you know, what you're looking for, what you want, um, it, you know, and things kind of start falling into place, it's a good feeling, you know.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like we're two kids right out of college or whatever making bad decisions.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's uh it's it's good, man.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're definitely both excited about it for sure.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's awesome.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: All right, and and we kind of talked about this a little bit earlier.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: You're kind of talking about your staff quite a bit.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: So let's dig into that a little bit further.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: What qualities do you look for in employees and how do you foster a positive and productive work environment?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I three words attention to detail.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Attention to detail is everything, not in just this business, but in every business.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: When we have trainers come through our train the trainer program, I I harp on them about attention to detail.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Attention to detail will make a good business great or a good business a tank.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's just one of those things that if you don't have attention to detail, then you certainly don't need to be working around animals because an animal will tell you something and if you but if you're not paying attention to it, you won't catch it.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that we have all these systems in place that are fail-safe, but a lot of that, a lot of those quote unquote systems uh derive from the staff.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's an ongoing battle.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'm looking for in a in a staff and a dog trainer is someone that, and this is more specifically catered to around our business.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for someone that has a passion for animals.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for someone that can leave their emotions in the car before they walk inside because we don't want to be emotional when we're working with dogs.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: You have to understand in the dog training business or in the dog world in general, they don't speak English.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like you would never have a dog on a podcast answering questions, you know, because they don't speak.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: They can only understand the words that you have taught them.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm looking for somebody that has patience.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for someone that's eager to learn every day because the dog is going to teach you something.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Every dog is different and you have to train the dog in front of you.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think as a whole, that's another attribute that makes us so good at what we do is we don't, there's no cookie-cutter format to training a dog.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can be at work on time, because obviously that is a huge thing in when you're dealing with animals, be at work on time, dedication to the craft, continually wanting to learn and pay attention to detail, you know, you're and and I tell everyone, I tell everyone when we're sitting down, having an interview, because we're not to the point yet where we have an HR uh or anything like that, or we have people doing interviews.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: We I do every interview.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: I still answer the phone.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if you call any of the numbers, it goes to my number because we're, even though we are two locations deep, several employees, we've had over 2,300 dogs come through our board and train program over the last seven years.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: I still don't, I don't want to lose that grassroots feel to where you can pick up the phone and call me and ask a question in regards to your dog.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you have questions about whether or not revolutionary canine is right for you, that you won't pick up the phone and actually talk to the person that created the business in general.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, but in the interview, back to that, I tell them.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's all I really want you to do is try to outwork me.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it's that's no, that's no easy task, Cliff.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you, man, because I hit the ground running every single day.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had employees look at me before and say, man, we're just not built like that.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I'm like, bro, you I'm 27 years your elder, and you're gonna sit here and tell me you're not built like this.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, so we we either need to go back to the building, the, you know, the building blocks and figure this thing out, or you might need to find something else to do.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not, it's not eat I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that every single day is just sunshine or rainbows, man.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, I mean, some days it's it's rough around here.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, the the finished product is is the I don't know, man.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's you know, I'm not trying to be all hallmarky with it, but that's what it's all about.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, being able to take a dog that, let's say this person has not even been able to take out in public in fear of this dog biting someone.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, taking that dog from that person, working that dog through its demons, and then making that transition from trainer to dog to now the the owner is actually the trainer and the handler.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's it's harmony, man.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's what it's all about.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the one reason I tell people in these in these trainer classes that I teach, I give you this information or I'm teaching you this information because I know that what I'm telling you is not going to make you a million dollars.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm telling you has to go with your work ethic.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, I just I and this is maybe creeping out on some arrogance, man, but I don't think that there's too many people out there in the world that's going to or willing to outwork me.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I try my best to bestow that on our employees.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's that's again, that's what I'm looking for in staff.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I really want someone that's going to come to work, grind it out, not, you know, in not ask uh, you know, how can we do this easier necessarily?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: No, let's just get it done in that way.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because our first and foremost, animal welfare is at the top of our list.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times, man, you have to die to self in order to make sure that the dogs get everything that they want.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect, perfect.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: So now we're going to head into the quick fire round.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: So basically, how this works is I'm going to say a word and I want you to give me the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear that word in regards to running your business.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you kind of talked about this first one here a little bit before.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get into a little bit more.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: Education.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Education.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Education is the top, man.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is the top.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: I tell people all the time, you cannot, no one can take your knowledge from you.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I am that guy.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: I geek out on whatever I'm on, I'm on.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's probably a good thing I never got into drugs, man, because I have the most addictive personality.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm on something, man, I'm on it.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and education is just you can't beat it because in this world, especially, not this, not just the dog training business, but but heck, man, look how far technology has advanced just in the last 10 years.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you would never, 10 years ago, 20 uh 20 years ago, you're not thinking about sitting down listening to a podcast, right?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: You're looking at the newspaper.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: You're, you know, you're reading stuff out of a book.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's one of those things that technology alone has advanced so much.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't stay up on the times, then you are going to be left.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: And although what worked 40 years ago will still work today, it's just not as efficient.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to know everything that I can about what I've got going on right now.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: And education, education is something I would pay for over and over and over again because that's, I mean, that's how passionately I feel about that.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think education is key.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, do I think that you need to go out and go, you know, get a master's degree in marketing or business?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not even what you're on right now?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: No, I think that's ridiculous.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're if you want to be a welder, I mean, go take every single welding class that you can, perfect your trade, be that guy, be the expert, be the one that doesn't have to say, oh, let me get back to you on that.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and speak it and like they say, say it with your chest.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Have the ability, have that knowledge base to where when somebody asks you a question, you can firmly stand on that and say, this is this is not only what I know to be true, this is also what I have done and seen this full force.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like with education, I'm sure you've heard of Bloom's taxonomy.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in the beginning, the that's that first stage of learning is just memorization.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: We can't really do a whole lot with memorization until we start being able to apply and create our own thing.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where the education is the forefront of everything, in my opinion.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Planning.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: You say money?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, planning.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Planning.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're talking to the wrong guy, man.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: I plan as I go, dude.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's not um, so yeah, planning for me, I'm not, I'm not that type a person.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I I literally take things and run with it.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Just like this podcast.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: You say, you know, in the email that I read, there's gonna be no scripts, you're not gonna get questions ahead of time.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because you want you want the real stuff.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: You want people to say what's on their heart.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: You want people, I mean, look at this.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: You say, okay, now the quick fire around.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you a word.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: You tell me something about that word.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's no planning in that, right?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that the people that have to sit down and make a plan may not be, may not be actually running that business through passion.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think passion would be a better word than planning.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, my uh my future wife, who is a CPA, she would crawl in her seat if she heard, because her thing is like, what's the plan?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a plan.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, I'll give you a quick story if you got time.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'll give you a quick story about when I started this company and I was sitting across from the vice president of a bank.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the the guy said, Well, what do you need to do today?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, I just need to open up a business checking account.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Okay, um, it'll just be this, this, that, and the other.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do you need any money today?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yeah, I always need money.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: What do you what do you what are you giving out?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, I mean, I don't know if you need to take out like a capital loan or something like that.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: I said, sure, we can do that.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Do you have a business plan?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And every person, I've never written a business plan.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've had two very successful businesses and never written a business plan.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: I literally take his pad of paper, I asked to borrow it, and he slides it over to me.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: I grab his pen and I just put, it will work, and I slid it back over to him.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because keep in mind, when I opened my first business was in 2008, and that was when we were in our quote unquote recession.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he was this guy was thinking he was doing me a favor.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: He was trying to talk me into staying where I was at because I was getting a regular paycheck, but I knew that I was destined for something else.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew I would bet I could, I can bet on myself.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: If I can't bet on anything, I can bet on myself, and I knew it was gonna work.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so that same guy who was trying to get me to stay at the employer where I was at, where I was not going anywhere, I went back the next and two weeks after I had opened up my gym business and I wanted to give him, I wanted him to give him my deposit.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I walked in, the girl at the tailor said, Oh, I could take a deposit.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: I said, No, I need to, I need to speak to the vice president of the bank.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so I walked up uh to him and he said, Hey, Chris, what can I do for you?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, I just need to make a deposit.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, the girls could have helped you out down there.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, No, I know that, but I, you know, seeing so I talk to you first, I'd rather just give it to you.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so I sat down on his desk and I slid over right at$19,800 in checks.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he had this look on his face and he pulled that freaking little piece of paper out from his desk that said, it'll work.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Man, I should just listen to you, you know, because it's one of those things that I could I bet on myself, man.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: So there's no plan.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: I've never, I've not had a plan.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: I so planning, I'm not the guy.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you want to talk about planning, um, uh, you know, that's not me.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I understand my scope, I understand where I want to end up, and then from there I'll backtrack to see or back chain to see what it is, where I need to make the first step.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: Inspiration.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Man, inspiration.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Inspiration for me comes from people that have been in the game much longer.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: I I see, I see that um, I see what they have done, and I I I try to, I don't want to say I try to emulate that, but I try to find my own way to get to that point.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: But also inspiration for me, I guess my my why, so to speak, has nothing to do with my from a monetary standpoint.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to live, I want to be happy, right?
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: I want to leave, I want to live happy.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: I want to I want to have the things that I need.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't I don't need much, but I I want my family to be happy.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: I want my family to be taken care of.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: So my inspiration probably doesn't come from the same place that most people come from, but at the end of the day, I want to leave some, I want to leave a legacy of sorts.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like with, you know, not only man was Chris a phenomenal dog trainer, or when he had the gym, he was a great personal trainer.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: He was a great guy and he was happy.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he and he ended up uh helping so many people through uh through his companies and through what he was doing, he was very giving of himself.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's my inspiration, I guess, to to every single day be just a little bit better than the day I was before.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Commitment.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Commitment's huge.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you can't you can't do anything without a full commitment.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can't, if you get up one day, let's say you're that individual that um is on the verge of obesity and you say, Man, I I really need to get my weight down, or uh you're you're that person that says, you know, I really need to quit smoking because my doctor is telling me that I have, you know, the possibility for lung cancer or or something like that.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: You you have to be committed to get to that point.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the the I tell people all the time the discipline, which you could throw right and you could you could basically trade out for commitment is saying no to something right now for something you want later.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have that, then you're not gonna be successful.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Commitment.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, hell dude, I want to get up every morning.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I want slow mornings.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: I want to, I'd love to wake up, walk through the house in my robe, make my coffee, pat a dog on the head, sit there and look out the window and sip on my coffee while my my eggs are cooking and whatnot.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: But that's that's there's no commitment there.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my commitment is to the business that I have, the employees that I that I employ, um, my family.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so commitments, commitments, everything.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't have that, you will not be successful whatsoever.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: So what words of advice would you offer to other business owners who are looking to grow?
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure what you're doing is something you're actually passionate about.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: I you know, Facebook, Facebook is a is a is a dark, evil place, man.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And but uh it is uh it's also great for comic relief for people that don't buy into the hype so much.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: But there was someone that asked on a local group to us, hey, what do we need in our city?
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at opening up a business, but just looking for some advice on what we need before I decide on what business I'm gonna open.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is about as idiotic as you can get when you're coming when it's coming from a business standpoint, because now what you've just done is you created a job for yourself.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: So my advice would be to make sure you're passionate about it.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Neither one of my businesses derived from me saying, Man, I need to make money, or you know, I want to open up this business to do this, or I think the I think our town or our city needs this.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna open it up and see how it goes.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, both of my businesses derived from a passion for whatever that particular thing was.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was big into fitness.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: I had the opportunity to play high school collegiate basketball, pro ball overseas.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: Fitness was my life.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was my lifestyle.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I I loved introducing people to fitness.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: That was a passion of mine.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that passion turned into money.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't, I mean, this, and it and the money just came.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't go looking for money.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: You have to look for what it is you're doing and let the money just show up.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've never knocked on wood, never been hurting for money when I had my own business because the passion was there.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you will find gain in other areas of your life that don't even, that aren't even a monetary from a monetary standpoint.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: So my advice to people that want to either get into opening up their own business, make sure it's something that they enjoy.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure it's something that they're passionate about.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because if if if you're in a service industry, you're also in a sales industry and people don't want to be sold.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't I haven't sold anything to anyone, but I can talk to people about the benefits of having a very well-trained dog and speak it with my heart, and and they hear that.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: So growing a business, same thing.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I would I would imagine that our growth only stems from the passion that we have.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are the boss, if you are the business owner, lead from the front, man.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Just like on Teams, man, just not every basketball team I have been on, you look, you the people that lead from the front, they lead by example, they get the most respect because people want to be them.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: People say, man, this guy is in the gym at 4:30 in the morning shooting jumpers before school.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Are you crazy?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: But he's also averaging 32 points a game.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: So he's doing something right.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: But the it's the guy that that sits back and wants to tell you we had a gentleman that worked for us, good guy, such, I mean, like good guy.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'd do anything for him, but he didn't lead by example.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: He led by standing there barking orders at the end of the fence.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you and nobody respects that.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody respects that.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you you have to lead by example for sure.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say the passion has to be there.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: You get up every morning, lead by example, and then the growth is going to come.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: The growth is gonna come to the point where you're like, oh, I've got I better either slow down or hire better people.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's the um, that's the or hire more people rather.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that's those those would be my two keys to business growth is to to make sure your passion is in check, make sure you know exactly what it is that you want to do, where you want this company going, and and lead leading by example for sure.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: So what's the next big thing for Revolutionary Canine?
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast coming out, man.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, dude.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we we just talked about planning.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: I have I don't know what the next big thing would be.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Our our schools are taking off.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: We do we have a train the trainer course where trainers come in from all over the place and learn how to train dogs or make uh we actually have people that are very successful in the dog training industry coming in and wanting to see how we do things.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I talk to other business owners about social media a lot.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, so who knows?
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: I would really love to see for myself personally get more into a teaching role and having still having very much hands-on in the business, but maybe gravitating towards more of a uh a teaching role for myself.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: But as far as the company is concerned, who knows?
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you in dog training, you never say never and you never say always.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not gonna sit here and tell you I don't want to open up another location somewhere, but it would have to be very enticing for me to do that.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't to answer your question, what's the next big thing for the company?
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: Man, the next uh January, January dogs, making making sure those dogs uh after these December dogs go home, making sure those January dogs are tight, and then the February dogs, and then the March dogs.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the next big thing.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: Our next big thing is that is is the dogs that we have in front of us at the moment.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect, perfect.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: And lastly, what's the best way for someone to find you or get in touch with you?
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a couple different avenues.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: We have a website, revolutionary canine.com, revolutionary canine, canine is spelled all the way out, c-a-n-in-e.com, revolutionary canine.com.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then of course we have the socials.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have Facebook, you can just look up Revolutionary Canine, and then we have our Instagram.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we have uh a little TikTok, but no one really, I don't, I'm not a tick, I'm not the TikTok guy.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh one of our uh actually our our daughter who was a marketing major at the University of Georgia, she just she told me that we needed a TikTok.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, okay, well, if you start it, then I'll then we'll get it going.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just one of those things I'm I'm not that, but I would definitely say website, check that out, our social media, Facebook and Instagram.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can also always reach out through email Chris, K-R-I-S at revolutionary canine.com.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: And my personal cell and the sell the the number that we use for the business for the um uh for me is 229-343-5369 or 828-352-2253.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: But that would be the those would be the best ways to get in touch.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect, perfect.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you so much for being a part of the community and for all you're doing.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we certainly wish you continued success.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: This was a great conversation.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, Cliff.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: And hey, man, just one more time, I just want to say thank you again.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: And what you're doing is absolutely amazing.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Small businesses don't really get the the credit and the the spotlight that they deserve.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, so what you're doing just with this platform alone is huge.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: I had opportunity to listen to a couple of your other episodes after we spoke originally.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just it's great stuff, man.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you keep up the good work.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh hats off to you and the team for what you guys are doing.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely amazing.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you very much, Chris.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great one.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: You as well.