Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / From Box Truck to Book Deal: Rob Esposito's Journey Building Relocators | Restaurants & Franchises Series

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From Box Truck to Book Deal: Rob Esposito's Journey Building Relocators | Restaurants & Franchises Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
0:10
how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
0:13
they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
0:18
the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their
0:20
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:24
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:26
My name is Anthony Codispotti and today's guest is Rob
0:29
Esposito, CEO of Relocators, a company that can help you with a
0:33
wide variety of moving and storage needs such as local and
0:37
long distance moving home clean outs, junk removal, professional
0:41
estate sales, online auctions, secure storage and restoration
0:45
pack outs. Rob was originally inspired by
0:48
his mother's estate sale business to start his own
0:51
business that has since expanded into six locations in New York
0:55
and Florida with a much wider offering of services.
0:58
Relocators expertise is the preparation and execution plan
1:03
before moving to ensure your process is stress free come
1:06
moving day. And he recently got a book deal
1:09
that we hear more about before we get into all that good stuff.
1:12
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1:15
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1:42
Now back to our guest today, the CEO of Relocators.
1:45
Rob, I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
1:49
Thanks, Aaron. I appreciate you having me.
1:51
So, Rod, give us the origin story.
1:53
How did this go from being inspired by your mother's estate
1:58
sale business to you wanting to start your own?
2:02
So, and thanks again, it's a pleasure to be here.
2:08
As a kid, I wanted to be a business owner, but I didn't
2:12
really understand what facet I would say.
2:14
I just more in control and successful.
2:17
Like I always had that vision. Initially I thought, you know, I
2:21
would just kind of go through the motions of college.
2:23
Nobody I really grew up with went to college and then try to
2:26
save up and start a route, you know, like save up $100,000 and
2:31
own like a boar's head route or something.
2:33
And. What kind of a route?
2:35
Like a boar's head route or or a potato chip route.
2:38
And what happened was my mother had started this estate sale
2:42
company where my Nana had gotten cancer in the early 2000s, and
2:47
she had to move her to Long Island.
2:49
And she was like what we call now the caretaker of the family.
2:52
And over a few weekends she like had unloaded ton 10 dumpsters
2:56
from her Queen's house. And she just thought like there
2:59
must be a better way. She had put an ad in the paper.
3:02
Old stuff out brings the money in.
3:03
Let us show you where to begin. And with that, she was like on
3:07
the precipice of this new like generational transition where
3:10
like the older generation of depression era held on to
3:14
everything and the newer generation didn't want anything.
3:17
And from there, she became one of the first estate sale
3:21
companies on Long Island. And when I was going through
3:25
like this stage, I was just a waiter, bartender going to
3:28
college. I would like clean out the
3:30
houses after the sales and I would do the clean outs on the
3:34
side. And the assisted living
3:36
directors, when the people were alive, were mutual clients of my
3:40
mother's. They would like kind of twist my
3:42
arm into doing like the small delivery for the people.
3:48
And from there I just realized like everybody's going through
3:52
this huge, you know, life transition and it's so
3:55
fragmented. So I purchased a box truck for
3:58
like $4000 and that's how it's. Going So you purchased a box
4:01
truck for $4000 because you were getting sort of these little
4:04
onesie twosie kind of jobs, people coming to you.
4:07
And then at what point did you think I'm really on to something
4:11
here like this? This could be my business, this
4:13
could be my career. Like this is something I could
4:15
really grow. I think right away I had the
4:19
thought like this is a fragmented industry and I was
4:26
such like a human condition person like always, like
4:29
analyzing the human condition and I saw like the stress people
4:32
were going through and then you're combining it with like
4:35
multiple huge life stressors, death in the move, divorce in
4:38
the move, things like that. So I saw that and I said to
4:42
myself, like, this can really be something if I can figure it
4:45
out. And that's pretty much what
4:47
happened. So I saw it right away.
4:49
But I would say I spent the next like four or five years in the
4:52
trenches self-employed, like fairly self-sufficient, you know
4:56
what I mean? At what point did it finally
4:59
start to turn a corner for you? I would say around 2012 and
5:04
2013, I got super into networking and audio bugs and I
5:10
started to like like click in my head.
5:13
Like OK, if I'm, I'm I'm so penny smart and dollar stupid.
5:19
Like I'm saving $150 on labor, but I'm missing an estimate that
5:24
could have made thousands like. And I started to like, do that
5:27
math in my head. So up until that point you were
5:30
doing most of the work yourself. Absolutely all of the work
5:34
myself. All of the work.
5:35
So you were a one man show up to that point and at some point you
5:38
got some inspiration listening to audiobooks, maybe networking
5:42
with some other successful entrepreneurs who kind of opened
5:45
your eyes to there's a different way to think about this.
5:48
Yes, it would just be me and helpers.
5:50
And I think I thought like, I thought like the world stopped
5:54
if I wasn't there looking, you know what I mean?
5:58
And I learned to like, you know, pay people more, hire an extra
6:02
person. And in the beginning it was real
6:04
rudimentary, like set up the job, go do 3 estimates in the as
6:08
close by as possible. That's how I would schedule
6:11
myself, go back, make sure it was good and, you know, progress
6:15
from there. And how were you lining up these
6:17
estimates? What did business development
6:19
look like for you in those early days?
6:23
Well, the whole way I started the company was the offshoot of
6:28
every one of my mother's clients needed my services.
6:31
So it was just catching that, you know, and being there to
6:35
support them. And it wasn't just that they
6:36
needed the services. It was a lifesaver for them
6:41
because like they would have to fly in and then hire a mover,
6:44
then hire a junk remover company, then how are they going
6:46
to ship it out of state? I can arrange all that for them,
6:48
their children that had left and moved far away.
6:51
So being there was a lot of the work and then little local
6:56
papers like Penny Saver and stuff like that.
6:59
So a lot of your initial work was coming from directly from
7:03
your mother's business and then you sort of built out from there
7:06
by taking out ads in the the local papers.
7:09
Correct. And I think when you're when
7:11
you're small like that, like I would take work that necessarily
7:14
didn't make money, but it gained a client, you know what I mean?
7:17
Like maybe we'd move a couch in the house for $100 and we
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probably broke even or didn't make money, but like then I'd
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have a client, you know what I mean?
7:23
So. And so that would be somebody
7:26
maybe you put into your e-mail list or your mailing list and
7:29
you keep in touch with them so that when the time came for them
7:32
to need a bigger service, you're top of mind.
7:36
Exactly. We would do like send out cards
7:38
like the digital cards that actually the the printable cards
7:43
go to the house, but you do it online.
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So we would like wish everybody a happy holidays every year.
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You know what I mean? Like keep those, keep the
7:49
clients like thinking of us at least.
7:52
And talk to me about sort of the, the progression now, right?
7:56
Like there was a point maybe four or five years after you
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started where you're like, man, I'm the bottleneck here.
8:02
I need to, I need to think bigger.
8:05
I need to hire some people, you know, I need to, to think about
8:08
some growth. At some point, I'm going to
8:12
guess you, you found yourself in a position where you had to, you
8:16
had to once again, think completely differently about the
8:19
business because small businesses go through multiple
8:24
stages of growth typically, right?
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There's one where you're the solo, you're the guy, you're the
8:29
one who knows and does everything.
8:31
Now you start to hire a couple of people, but they all report
8:35
to you, right? And, and then at some point
8:38
you've got to put like another layer in there to where maybe
8:41
not everybody's reporting to you, but like a handful of
8:44
managers report to you. Does this describe your your
8:48
sort of progression? Like you read my mail.
8:52
Are you kidding me? Yeah.
8:53
I mean, I couldn't. You said it perfect.
8:56
The only thing I would even add to that is that, like, I don't
9:00
think it's ever gonna stop happening.
9:02
Like, you know what I mean? Like I keep getting these phases
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where like, all right, for two years life is unbelievable and
9:08
it's running smooth and I'm here and it's rocking and it's
9:12
operating and you know, the problems you could just like,
9:15
almost like you're like in a matrix and they're just like
9:17
flying off you. But then it's like 2 years of
9:21
hell and you're like back to the bottom and you're like, I can't
9:24
figure this out. Like the last three or four
9:26
years it's been like exactly what you just said, non
9:30
operational staff. And like it took me years of
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clearing people out all different ways.
9:35
OK, I hired the wrong people. I hired people like, no, I did
9:39
this. They're not being accountable.
9:41
Why? I'm not the Google of relocators
9:43
like, you know, like trying to figure out.
9:45
And then you get competent people and you're like, wow,
9:48
well, this department's running perfect now.
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Why? Because they're great.
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So that person has to go, you know, And like, I'm finally
9:54
like, I feel like I just got through a tunnel in the last
9:56
like year of that phase of it. So yes, every level I I've hit
10:03
that. Talk to me more about what that
10:05
last year was like, the transitions that you had to
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make, maybe some difficult decisions along the way.
10:11
Absolutely. I had friends that were people I
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had met throughout the years that were like managers, but
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they were accountable to nothing.
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And then finally, like, you know, it's almost like a
10:26
relationship where like you're in love and you're in a bubble,
10:30
but then something happens, a straw breaks the camel's back
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and that burst the bubble. And then you're like, all right,
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we're never going to speak to them.
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Like one person I remember he was accountable to nothing, but
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we had trust. And then he like totally
10:45
deceived a small amount of check where I would have paid, I would
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have paid 10,000 if I had known it was a mistake.
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Not that I even could, but it was like right in the middle of
10:55
COVID. And he made it like he was doing
10:58
us a favor by stockpiling stuff. And really he measured wrong.
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And that little lie like burst the bubble and like, you know,
11:07
let him go. And there's been a few people
11:09
like that. My one of the guys that's been
11:11
with me since day one, he's like a brother to me now.
11:14
He's not adapting to the growth, but he's still around.
11:17
But he has value and he's one of the only ones.
11:20
I mean, there's no way to say anything about him except that
11:23
he is revoking. So it's like when, you know,
11:26
when he's here and he's working great and sometimes we tell him
11:29
to leave and then he comes back. But the last of that old guard
11:34
of people that we got rid of, he had been tipped off that the guy
11:38
was stealing. We had went through phases of
11:40
having fuel cards and then having the guys gas up at the
11:44
gas stations and that costs a lot of money in labor.
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Then the fuel cards didn't work because they had fees on it even
11:49
though they said it was the same price.
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So we installed our own gas station and we we solved all
11:54
those issues. But then he gets tipped off and
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I don't believe him because we're checking the cameras for
11:58
months. Come to find out he's like no
12:02
bro I know trust me. He stayed here till 3:00 in the
12:06
morning. He cut cameras in the AC unit on
12:08
the roof and in one week we got him filling up his diesel truck
12:12
like three times. Wow.
12:15
Yeah. And this is somebody who you'd
12:17
known for a long time, had been with you for years.
12:20
It was an old garb, but he was working five years and he was in
12:22
like the top operations position.
12:24
Yes. And he was the and yeah, he was
12:27
the one he was backing the trucks up, so the cameras were
12:29
blocked. So we had to and that's what I'm
12:32
saying like the the guy that the Spanish guy that I was on a
12:35
truck with 12 years ago that isn't adapting, but he's so
12:38
valuable. He was right away.
12:40
He knew like, hey, some low end laborers saw him filling up and
12:44
tip them off, you know, like, and that's where like there's
12:48
value in people that are loyal, but others you got to like weave
12:53
through. Have you found it challenging,
12:57
difficult to remove some of these people who are under
13:01
performers as you're going through these different growth
13:03
curves? I did.
13:07
I've would love to say I'm over that.
13:10
You know, I've gotten so much better at it.
13:12
And the people that are here now, the bar is so high and they
13:16
operate so well that like, I don't even think it's on me.
13:19
Like it now it's starting to come to me as the problem, you
13:22
know what I mean? And the solution, not just like
13:25
what do we do about this, you know what I mean?
13:27
Like, so I think I'm above it. And those one or two people that
13:30
have been here 1213 years that are relocators that maybe
13:33
underperform, they manage them well.
13:36
They give them the most important task that they need to
13:38
do. So I I would love to say I'm
13:41
above it, but it's always a difficult, especially when
13:44
emotions are. Involved, it's one of the
13:46
hardest conversations I think somebody can have.
13:48
It's right up there with breaking up with somebody in in
13:51
some, in some cases it's worse because you've just taken away
13:54
their livelihood. Yeah, yeah.
13:57
For people who've never had to have that conversation with an
14:00
employee, it's a tough one. It's brutal, especially when you
14:03
like someone and you're like saying, you know, I love you.
14:05
I wish you the best, but not, you know, like, like the train.
14:09
It's a relationship. It's exactly what you just said.
14:11
Yeah. And so we've kind of hit upon a
14:13
really important point here, you know, especially with the the
14:16
labor shortage that we're all dealing with, it's so hard to
14:20
not only find but keep good people.
14:23
And you've gone through sort of multiple cycles of this.
14:26
I'm curious, Rob, what you're doing, what you've tried and
14:30
found that works to find good people and then once you've got
14:35
them to hold on to them to retain them?
14:39
I'm a big networker and Ivan Meisner has a line culture eats
14:44
strategy for breakfast, you know, and then like it is the
14:47
most accurate, like everything about our culture, like like
14:53
logos on the rug, pool table in the center.
14:55
Like we try to make it a fun place and a serious place.
15:00
The when I was going through it for all those years, it's those
15:03
Spanish foreman that have been here 10 years.
15:06
Like all I wanted was to like talk to them everyday.
15:10
Like I just want to manage my foreman.
15:12
Everybody get out of here, you know what I mean?
15:13
Like because, because I know that and it's easy.
15:16
And even before that it was like, you come in the office and
15:19
everybody, oh, I want to grow. I want to come in the office, I
15:22
reckon, Oh, you don't. And then they see when they do,
15:25
like, all right, I want to go back on the truck.
15:27
I'm like, yo, I felt that way for 10 years.
15:29
Like I just want to go do a job right now.
15:31
It's so much simpler than but the people that are here know
15:36
like that we're trying out and they have this like almost like
15:41
this like tribe mentality where like they get offended if
15:46
somebody comes in isn't, you know, recycling a box that
15:52
really wasn't you rolling away 1/2 flow of tape.
15:56
You know, like they they have that like inner feeling.
16:01
And I love that. So tell me more about that
16:02
culture. I mean, you describe, you know,
16:04
you're trying to make it some combination of serious and fun.
16:08
You want like a tribe, You want people who are working together.
16:12
What for somebody who's coming into the work environment, like
16:15
what are you looking for in an employee?
16:17
What what's the qualities that you want to make sure you have?
16:21
First of all, I, I've hired one or two people in 17 years in the
16:26
moving industry and I've made it a point now to never do that.
16:31
I'd rather train you. And as far as like on a non
16:36
operational side, the head sales person right now, he, my only
16:40
background, you know, work wise is working at Vincent's Clambar,
16:46
which is one of the most famous restaurants in New York.
16:50
And the owners are grassroots themselves.
16:52
And they were my mentors. One of them is my partner now.
16:56
And that hospitality mentality. So like the person I hired sales
17:01
manager, he was a manager at 3 restaurants in my networking
17:05
group. And I'm like, what are you
17:06
doing? You keep the doctor, come work
17:07
for me. And I would only hire
17:10
hospitality. So hospitality first, it's
17:13
you're very customer service oriented, you would actually
17:16
prefer that they not have experience in the moving
17:19
industry because maybe they come with a lot of bad traits, a lot
17:23
of bad habits that you have to. Untrain shaded, yes, Yeah.
17:27
OK, absolutely. So let's talk a little bit more
17:31
about the business operations and paint a picture for me.
17:34
What makes relocators different than the competition out there?
17:41
One, we're a one stop shop so like we try to see the whole
17:44
transition through, whether it be like if we come to your house
17:49
and you don't have enough for an estate sale, we can still offer
17:52
you a clean out, we can still give you advice.
17:54
We try to give people a path out of their through their
17:57
transition. I actually developed the, it's
18:01
called the relo road map. And basically it's like we can
18:04
number like what services you, you could possibly need and in
18:08
what order they go. And we try to be like super
18:13
solution oriented that way. Cause for years people would fly
18:16
in, I would explain stuff to them and they're, they, I, I
18:20
have this saying that when a parent dies, no matter what, if
18:23
there's one person in the family or ten siblings, 3 personalities
18:27
show up. The, the caretaker, the executor
18:30
and the apathetic one or one that doesn't give a shit and
18:35
that shows up. So now you'll meet with the
18:37
executor or you'll meet with the caretaker and right away they're
18:40
like, all right, can you just e-mail me the process so I can
18:44
explain it to my siblings? Like, you know, and that's a,
18:47
that's a big talk. Like, you know, you're
18:50
liquidating mom's childhood home when mom just passed away.
18:54
So like we try to make it as simple as possible on that
18:57
aspect. Other than that, like
19:01
technology, like we're super. I've spent so many years and
19:06
wasted so much money getting better systems and better
19:09
systems and adapting systems. And I don't feel there's any
19:13
system that's good enough. They're either great in
19:18
operations and terrible in sales or they're, you know, sales
19:23
heavy and lead, lead capture heavy and terrible in operation.
19:27
So I actually have these kids who I guess I'll say this, I am
19:32
like forcing to drop out of college because they are so
19:36
smart. And it's my, it's my mother's
19:38
accountant sons. They've taken this like smart
19:42
moving and they auto emailed, which smart moving does reports
19:46
out, changed them in some kind of software at 3:00 in the
19:49
morning every day and then show me KPIs in a rotating 32nd
19:54
fashion all day on my TV and it's all automated.
19:57
And I'm like, what are you guys doing going to school?
19:59
Like like, like we just spent six months on this and.
20:03
They, they figured something out that I've been thinking about
20:06
for 10 years that don't figure out, you know, like.
20:08
What's that data that they're putting up on the dashboard for
20:11
you and and how is it helping you?
20:13
How many so like so for instance when I say like no systems, the
20:19
best smart moving is by far the best I've found.
20:22
And I've searched a lot and spent a lot of money training
20:25
and learning ones and then throwing them away without ever
20:28
implementing them. But for instance, a, a salesman
20:32
and just to give you a microcosm of it can be doing a follow up.
20:36
And maybe he has eight follow-ups today and he's on 4
20:38
estimates now he calls the follow up on the road or in from
20:41
his car on Bluetooth. And then he comes in the office
20:45
and he's got a million things to do.
20:47
How is it possible that that follow up can stay in the ether?
20:50
Like how is it possible that he could then sign into his account
20:54
and go write up an estimate and there's not something going,
20:57
what are you doing? You didn't make another follow
20:59
up and this job did not get booked.
21:00
You know what I mean? Like, and that's what I don't
21:03
understand, like things like that, like how they could be
21:05
caught in the ether. So now I'll see like 10
21:09
estimates today, five open, 12 upcoming estimates.
21:15
Like we broke it all out into where it's all sitting.
21:18
And then social media stats, how things are being lost.
21:22
And part of what they do automatically is they remove all
21:27
the bullshit like the duplicate estimate or have to rewrite a
21:31
different way because that's not, that's just going to skew
21:33
our number, you know, like none of the data we look at from the
21:36
systems is accurate at all. And it was so frustrating.
21:40
Interesting. Are there other examples of
21:43
technology that you've put in place to help with your growth?
21:47
Yeah. So the first thing they did, and
21:51
this is before I tried to get them the quick hides, is they
21:54
took all the recurring storage in all my buildings
22:00
automatically emailed from Smart Moving, which Smart Moving has a
22:03
nice section of the recurring storage and in every building it
22:08
uploads, I can show you into an actual map of the building.
22:13
So like the operations? You can see a physical layout of
22:17
it. Like a, Like a.
22:18
Visual. And I'll show you and the money,
22:21
like this building is trending 2000 down because three piles
22:25
came out this week, this month, This one's trending up.
22:28
All right. So the operation manager knows
22:29
to put it there. He knows that it's real fragile
22:31
stuff and it's got to go in the corner and he can see that the
22:33
corners open in this building. Like it's just, I mean what
22:37
they've been able to do with automatically with like such
22:41
little is mind blowing to me. And are you able to take that
22:45
data then and really help your team make daily decisions that's
22:50
affecting growth? I mean, the operations manager
22:53
does not send something to storage daily, all day without
22:57
looking at the maps and pointing out what pile to go to and as
23:01
opposed to a foreman going to whichever building he's closest
23:06
to, putting it in a pile and then telling us the next day.
23:09
And we hope he's accurate where his where his lot number is, You
23:13
know what I mean? So now you can use this day to
23:15
help you make the best decision before you move the items.
23:19
Exactly. And Mataports we we're heavy in
23:22
like like 3D imaging or virtual virtual tours or you know, like
23:27
we can do a lot of estimates virtually.
23:30
We actually just booked the Snyder's move from LA to North
23:34
Carolina. You know, he's 80's rock star.
23:37
He sings like, we're not going to take it and you just sent
23:40
this videos and we were able to like put them into a virtual
23:43
tour and do the estimate right there, right then and there,
23:46
like from here, you know, without ever going.
23:48
So you guys do work even outside of, I know you've got physical
23:52
locations in New York and Florida, but you just mentioned
23:54
two locations that are well outside of that, North Carolina
23:57
and LA. Yeah, that's, we'll, we'll go to
24:01
California. We try to stay east of the
24:03
Mississippi and one, one location has to be the Florida
24:07
or New York. This was a personal referral and
24:09
we'll do things for personal referrals you.
24:12
Know or for former rock stars, former current rock.
24:16
Stars. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:19
No, that was my. That was my slip up, Yeah.
24:22
So, so let's talk more about the geographies that you typically
24:25
cover there. You you'd like to stay with one
24:27
of the destinations or one of the starting points being in
24:30
either New York or Florida. Is that generally how you
24:32
operate? Yes, on the locals, yeah, if
24:36
we're like, if we're because we even send trucks to Florida
24:38
every week, sometimes 2A week, sometimes one every two weeks.
24:42
And so if you have a job like Jersey or Virginia to Georgia,
24:47
that's in the path. So we would just grab it.
24:49
But yeah, for the most part, it's on a local level.
24:52
One location's got to be in Florida or New York.
24:56
Rob, what are some of the most common mistakes that you see
24:59
people make when they're packing, moving, storing their
25:02
stuff? Number one is number one by far
25:09
is they think that 50% of the stuff is 50% of the cost.
25:17
Meaning my husband can take the garage, my husband can take the
25:20
patio stuff, my husband can take the boxes in his trailer in his
25:22
pickup truck, and then the price doesn't change.
25:26
Why? Because seven guys could take
25:29
100 or 300 boxes out of your house in like one hour, you know
25:33
what I mean? Whereas those seven guys are
25:35
going to take many hours to take apart your TV's, take apart your
25:40
furniture, wrap your fragile stuff, you know what I mean?
25:42
So that's a huge one. The best thing you can do is
25:46
disassemble stuff or take the fragile stuff yourself in your
25:50
car, like the little intricate stuff, or take AT VS go forward.
25:56
Second would be you have to be there like moving is not a thing
26:04
where you can just rely on the person running the job.
26:07
It's not like building your putting your roof off or
26:10
building your deck. Like the best thing you can do
26:14
is prep. And we try to offer like color
26:16
coding to stickers where like you sticker everything on color
26:19
And then in the new house, each room corresponds to a color so
26:22
they know where to go, but you still got to tell them how to
26:24
put your furniture and you're going to pay a lot more money.
26:26
If you want to move your couch, then it's powerly so.
26:31
So not being there or being busy or leaving your husband there
26:35
and then coming home and changing it all cost you a lot
26:38
more money. You know what I mean?
26:40
No. Tell me how COVID affected you
26:43
guys. COVID was like a tsunami.
26:47
It was, I used to say, like, no matter.
26:51
There came a point where I said no matter what, I will never, I
26:58
will never like be hungry, like my cell phone will always make a
27:02
few hundred a day or 1000 a day. And I could, you know, like I
27:05
remember years ago thinking that at one point, like crossing that
27:09
threshold where like I couldn't have fear and you know, like
27:12
fear of like not having anything that rang true in COVID 'cause
27:18
me and that employee I mentioned Julio and like four or five
27:22
other like long term employees come in every day.
27:26
There's that job, that book that day.
27:29
I'm like a realtor that needed something or somebody that
27:31
needed something in an emergency.
27:33
So for those first three months, as scary as it was, my theory
27:38
was ringing true. And then it just came back like
27:41
a tsunami. And it came back like a tsunami
27:44
one or two years after we started out of state movement.
27:47
And that became the biggest, you know, service we were doing and
27:51
online auctions, which I had opened up to retire my mother.
27:57
And now no one wanted to stay still.
27:58
They wanted an online auction. So we just had two new, new
28:01
things that we had just started in the one to three years before
28:04
COVID absolutely carrying us, which, you know, was so lucky.
28:10
So such a blessing. Rob, are you able to get the mic
28:13
a little bit closer to you? Sure, absolutely.
28:16
Great. I'm curious, you know, obviously
28:19
as business leaders we're we're always keeping our eye on the
28:22
bottom line, right. And there's two ways to make
28:24
that move. We can you know add more in
28:26
sales, we can find creative ways to reduce costs.
28:30
I'm curious to hear from you, maybe some interesting or
28:32
creative things that you've tried, both ends of that
28:34
spectrum, boosting sales and lowering expenses.
28:40
Sure. To in the vein of what I was
28:44
just saying about like those two services and Hurricane Sandy was
28:49
like the COVID, there was a major hurricane that hit the
28:51
East Coast in 2012. Moving went away, but clean outs
28:57
would have got crazy and we were doing moving and clean outs at
29:00
the time. Now 12 years later, 13 years
29:03
later, out of all the services we offer, like 70% of our
29:08
revenue comes from insurance Gary, like insurance Gary's and
29:14
restoration companies. So I spent all those years
29:17
building a camp because of Hurricane Sandy because we had
29:21
like moved back 150 houses that were getting lifted on the coat.
29:26
And from there I learned about restoration and we became like
29:29
everybody packed our company by our water count.
29:32
We've gone more B to B and built sales that way in the go ahead.
29:39
Yeah. So the the restoration business,
29:41
this is somebody has a fire, somebody has a flood, they need
29:44
to move all their stuff out of the house.
29:46
So the restoration companies, the insurance companies can come
29:48
in and get it cleaned up. So you guys move the stuff out,
29:52
you store it and then when the work is done you bring it back
29:54
and and put it back in place. Correct and contrary to what I
29:57
just said about like be home and don't leave your husband home
30:01
the the restoration jobs, they're actually like you could
30:04
be in Hong Kong. There are clients in Hong Kong
30:07
like you wear literally virtual tour in your house going, taking
30:13
pictures of every cabinet and taking it out everything
30:17
salvageable and then bringing it back and putting it exactly
30:20
where it was. So you don't even have to be
30:21
there. It's a totally different way of
30:23
doing. It and you were able to build
30:25
this side of your business because you saw through
30:29
Hurricane Sandy. Oh, this is a whole nother sort
30:32
of niche that I wasn't really tuned into before.
30:35
Let me start making relationships with the insurance
30:37
companies, with the restoration companies.
30:39
So we're getting those jobs directly from them.
30:42
Yeah, and stay in my lane. And never like everyone started
30:45
starting restoration companies, people would get into it with
30:47
dry cleaning and then all of a sudden they'd own a restoration
30:49
company. Like we always just like we're
30:51
everybody's packed our company, you know what I mean?
30:53
And it's really benefited us. It's how we got into Florida too
30:57
during Harke and Ian. And the restoration has been a
31:01
big thing on the other vein, like I told you with the fuel,
31:05
like saving money that way. I'm seeing now like we're super,
31:11
super aggressive with social media and we do it a lot of
31:16
different facets. And we have kids making videos.
31:19
We have an employee who is like an elderly Spanish guy who does
31:23
like moving fails and he's absolutely hysterical.
31:27
And we just like hired like a sidekick to him.
31:30
The reason is I, I 100% believe, and I said this years ago, a
31:35
year or two ago before now everybody's starting to believe
31:38
it. The moms groups are going to
31:40
control the world like Google. Both Google can't touch the moms
31:43
group and companies will live and die by them on the local
31:46
one. And we just try to stay
31:48
extremely relevant on social media and.
31:51
So how do you connect with the moms?
31:54
Networking, having a lot of people in the areas making sure
31:57
you like, we've never had a bad review relocators like we always
32:01
make sure we accountable to. I mean, it's moving, issues
32:04
happen, but we're always accountable to the work we do
32:09
and make sure that like the client leads satisfied.
32:12
You know, you can't make them all happy, but we try to.
32:16
A lot of people will refer on them, so we're always checking
32:19
them and we try to make like fun videos and stuff.
32:22
Not that we advertise in them, but you know, we build our
32:25
accounts. If we go to speak at a real
32:28
estate office or at like some kind of convention, wherever the
32:32
list is, we try to be friends. Like we'll give it to a kid to
32:35
just get all the Facebook friends with audiences that you
32:38
can get on the way. So it's so that one meeting,
32:41
that one networking event on Tuesday night in January lasts
32:45
forever with social media, you know what I mean?
32:48
Because now you're showing them and you're saying, oh, and then
32:50
now you've developed a relationship that's not even a
32:53
relationship in the real world from that real world
32:57
relationship. So you've mentioned fuel a
33:01
couple of times. I'd like to hear a little bit
33:03
more of the details of that. You guys did some fuel cards
33:05
before. What were the troubles that you
33:07
had with that and and why was it better switching to setting a
33:10
station up at your location there?
33:14
First, the fuel guards. We couldn't control what the
33:17
fuel was going. So like we would have like
33:19
Saturday afternoon Phillips in salesman's cars, like, you know,
33:24
there's no rhyme or reason for that.
33:27
And then we would have the guys go to the gas stations.
33:34
So you have like 4040 men and 34 of them are not driving and
33:42
they're getting paid to sit at a gas station for 30 minutes, you
33:45
know, while we fill up. And like, that's an extreme
33:49
waste. Then we brought in like the
33:51
trucks that come and fill up your truck at night.
33:57
But as much as the gallons matched, you would see all these
34:02
like fees and random like, you know, fees for show up fee or
34:06
this fee and for the gallons weren't matching.
34:08
So finally we, we had hired a full time mechanic in the back.
34:12
We put up like a shipping container tank.
34:14
And I mean, if it's got heat in it and he does all our light
34:18
maintenance, he's here every day at 3:00 in the morning.
34:21
We put a diesel station in and the truck comes like every two
34:24
weeks, the diesel tank and he fills up at 3:00 in the morning.
34:28
So when he when the guys come, they're ready to go.
34:31
So this guy's filling up all the trucks at 3:00 in the morning.
34:33
You're not having guys sitting idle at a gas station.
34:36
There's much better oversight in terms of where that fuel is
34:40
going, right? Because you've got one guy who's
34:42
putting it in the trucks. He's the only one that's got
34:44
access to that, that diesel pump.
34:48
Do you off the top of your head, I'm curious, did, did do you
34:50
have any idea what kind of savings did you guys experienced
34:55
making this transition? No, but I can tell you having
34:59
him here as a mechanic, 10s of thousands of dollars a month
35:04
without a doubt. Because previously you had to
35:07
take the trucks to a third party to get them serviced.
35:10
Yeah, every single little thing is $1000, you know what I mean?
35:14
And there's, there's like 18 vehicles.
35:17
So you, the the mechanic bills were astronomical.
35:21
And he can, he can't do everything, but he does enough.
35:26
Like he does all the, the 80% of it he does, you know, and it's
35:31
great. And when something breaks down,
35:34
we don't send a tow truck, we send him.
35:36
And seven out of 10 times, he gets it started.
35:41
So I want to talk about some fun, exciting news that's just
35:45
recently come to you. There's a book deal in place.
35:49
Yes. Tell me about that.
35:51
How'd this come about? It honestly, it's really falling
35:55
into places. I'm extremely blessed and I, I
35:59
don't believe in luck, but I feel very lucky about it.
36:03
You know, I always say luck's like a point preparation meets
36:05
point of opportunity, that critical moment.
36:08
But I had done like a speak event, which is like a Ted talk.
36:13
It's the guys that leave that that used to do Ted Talk.
36:18
They have like a platform, a competing platform now and
36:20
they're really growing. They're awesome guys.
36:23
I did it like a year and a half ago.
36:24
And from that, this chance conversation with my partner,
36:29
he's like, why are you doing all this?
36:31
You know, like you're doing a lot of this.
36:32
I thought that was phenomenal last night.
36:35
I was like, you know, I don't know.
36:36
It's one of those things where like you'll find out in the
36:38
future, like, but it feels right.
36:41
And then from there he asked, do you want to be an author?
36:46
And I was like, no, I never thought of that ever.
36:49
I'm like, as a kid, actually, I used to like write screenplays
36:54
and I was enacting like 1617 and you're talking like 25 years
36:59
ago. I have not thought about that
37:01
from there because of that convo.
37:04
A couple months later, months later, I was leaving a meeting
37:07
with my publicist and I was like, hey, you got a ghost
37:10
writer. So I started working with this
37:11
woman and she had said, you know, you're out of your mind.
37:14
You nobody's going to publish an author for multiple books, a
37:17
first time author. You can't make money selling
37:19
books. And she was right about both.
37:21
I was out of my mind and nobody's gonna make money
37:24
selling books. And I was like, yeah, but
37:27
listen, this is my plan. I'm gonna self publish a book,
37:31
pay for it myself, buy it off myself, give it to my estimators
37:35
to give out for a competitive edge.
37:38
And in two or three years when the book has sales, because I'm
37:43
the one buying it, we'll take that.
37:46
We'll put it with like my Newsday publishing long on
37:48
business news, anything we have that's published about Relo and
37:54
we'll solicit an agent to try to get a book deal.
37:57
But that was the plan and we had that plan and we were working
38:00
that. And like 4 weeks ago, I randomly
38:04
go out to lunch with a guy who runs another networking group
38:10
who we met at trainings ten years ago.
38:12
And this guy, his name is Ron Sarantino.
38:14
He's one of the greatest guys always like mutual respect,
38:18
mutual love for each other. He he's got a ton of Hollywood
38:23
connections and he we just always missed each other, missed
38:29
each other. And finally we like made it
38:31
happen. We go out to lunch and break
38:33
catch up to three hour lunch. And the next day I get a call.
38:38
Hey, I took the liberty to explain your concept to a
38:42
publisher I know and they're going crazy.
38:44
They want to talk to you. And then like 3 weeks of
38:47
meetings and it just went off the handle and literally that
38:50
was 10,000 word book in the last four weeks.
38:53
I'm working with a ghost writer in Britain and we have it up to
38:56
like 64,000 words right now. It's incredible.
39:00
So that's attached to it and stuff.
39:02
It's. What's the concept of the book?
39:04
What's the title or the working title?
39:06
What can you tell us about it? The title is the one thing I'm
39:10
going to really force to keep. I'm going to really push.
39:13
It's nobody move until you've read this, like, you know, like
39:16
freeze nobody move like the police.
39:19
And basically it's like the moving Bible and the whole
39:22
concept behind the book deal is that she wants to like take
39:26
this, make it to two hundred 250 page book.
39:28
It's got like hysterical means, like my social media kid is
39:32
making means like two or three a day.
39:35
Like every idea we have, I'm just texting voice notes yo do
39:38
this, yo do this, you know, and like like the caretaker
39:41
executive thing is like a three headed monster, you know,
39:44
standing over a casket. Like they're just so like a
39:47
storage unit is in a sarcophagus, like like storage
39:50
units are the new Egyptian tombs, you know what I mean?
39:53
Like that's where you just keep all your stuff forever after you
39:55
pass away. Your kids don't want it.
39:57
So you know, like all these memes have you.
39:58
And basically we're she's creating this to be the Bible.
40:02
The publisher with the plan to take each section and elderly
40:07
move section will be its own book.
40:08
The horror stories, I believe will be a feature film one day.
40:11
They are incredible. And literally we sat down to
40:14
write them and like old employees, new employees were
40:17
like sitting down talking about them.
40:19
And we're like, all right, we're going to have to make some shit
40:20
up within two minutes. We all had to.
40:23
Nope, we're not going to make anything up.
40:25
Like everything, the real life, nothing beats it.
40:28
Like the story just break themselves, you know?
40:31
You should have a reality TV show that follows you around to
40:33
some of these sites that it sounds like you've got some good
40:36
stories that come out of these experiences.
40:37
Oh my God, yeah, it's hysterical.
40:40
And so what's the plan with the book now?
40:42
Is the plan to actually sell the book to like the general public,
40:45
or is it still kind of the former plan, which is I'm going
40:48
to print a bunch of these, buy them myself and hand them out to
40:51
to sort of create like a competitive edge?
40:53
No, absolutely. The first plan is done.
40:55
Like that book was frozen like three or four weeks ago.
40:59
It's now like six times the size.
41:02
And I mean, the, the, the Ghost Rider's literally working.
41:07
I'm voicemailing her stuff from 7:00 AM till midnight every day,
41:11
every day, seven days a week. Like she's working around the
41:14
clock. The idea is that the goal is
41:21
that nobody will be in real estate surrounded in this
41:24
industry without a white label first page giving this book out
41:28
for free once they get a client. No realtor, no real estate
41:31
lawyer, no, no mortgage broker, title companies, inspection
41:39
people like we plan to like make this AB to B where like you
41:43
can't be in the industry without giving without or up.
41:48
It's too valuable because all these people are giving away non
41:51
functional gifts for hundreds of dollars.
41:54
And now you have something that's like super functional,
41:56
super helpful and fun and will allow you to personalize a page
42:02
in it. You know what I mean?
42:03
And buy 100 copies of and then you'll be able to give them out
42:07
of gifts to your client. Oh, that's fun.
42:10
How does the page get personalized?
42:13
However you are, you'd write your paragraphs and your company
42:16
and it would go in like an insert and page one, like page
42:18
one would be like a plastic insert with.
42:20
That's not all ironed out yet, but that's the plan.
42:23
So is there a timeline for this book?
42:24
It sounds like everything is coming together very recently
42:27
and very quickly. Maybe it's too early to tell
42:30
when this might actually go to print.
42:33
Yeah, I believe it'll go in editing next week, but this
42:36
literally all happened since May.
42:38
I think our lunch was like May 10th, you know, like it's all
42:41
happened. In a way.
42:41
And here we are recording this on June 13th, 2024.
42:44
So it's, it's, it's four weeks old.
42:47
Yeah, super now. OK, shifting gears, let's see
42:52
what's something Rob, you wish you could teach a younger
42:55
version of yourself something that's great, just sort of
43:02
understood common knowledge for you now.
43:04
But man, 1520 years ago if you had known this path would have
43:09
been easier. A buddy of mine from networking,
43:13
Murray, said something to me yesterday.
43:16
And it's funny to ask that 'cause it, it just, that just
43:18
popped right in my head. He said his wife had read the
43:22
first book. And he was like telling me how
43:24
impressed she was. And we were talking about it.
43:27
And I was like, thank you. And he's like, you know, The
43:28
thing is with you, for 12 years, I've watched you.
43:31
And the difference between you and everybody else is you
43:34
wonder. You don't worry.
43:36
And all I didn't mean, are you kidding me?
43:39
But like I'm thinking about it from 10 years ago.
43:42
I'm thinking about it from 15 years ago, like worrying about
43:44
everything, being scared to come to work.
43:47
Like he's right now. I don't worry like there's like
43:52
anything that happens. Like I don't feel like I don't
43:55
feel that insecurity anymore where I used to do insecurity,
43:58
you know, and I think you need to know in the beginning when
44:01
you start, like just keep going. Like I tell this story all the
44:06
time about throwing the cinder block through a windshield and
44:08
saying I'm done and that that really happened.
44:11
And it dawned on me talking to other people and other
44:13
businesses like, you know, the whatever, what's that word?
44:18
The like the cinder block, you know, like the quote UN quote
44:25
cinder block. Like like they didn't do it, but
44:29
they've had that experience. You know what I mean?
44:31
I forget the word missing up in that but.
44:35
What's the before you make the point?
44:37
What's the cinder block story that that may help?
44:39
Let's connect to the bigger point you're going to make.
44:41
So basically I had like two workers and I would like put gas
44:46
and diesel trucks and ruin a day and I couldn't afford the money
44:49
and I couldn't afford the repair cost.
44:51
And I just like showed up to lose thousands of dollars.
44:54
And now I got to rent the truck and do it tomorrow.
44:56
And one day, like I got so frustrated I threw a cinder
44:59
block through the windshield and I was like, I'm done.
45:01
I can't do this anymore. And then that night I was
45:04
thinking to my school, like last year, I used to have to put gas
45:07
in my truck three times a day 'cause I couldn't afford to fill
45:10
up my tank. You know, like I get paid on a
45:12
job and they go put more gas in. Like now I'm doing better.
45:15
And like, I kind of carried that.
45:17
I went home and, you know, make that shit.
45:19
But that's the cinder. But when I tell it now, oh
45:23
proverbial the proverbials like everyone has that proverbial,
45:27
proverbial. Proverbial.
45:30
Yep, we. Gotcha.
45:31
Cinder block and like I really had that cinder block story, but
45:35
everybody hides it and you just get so frustrated and like no,
45:39
you just it's not that important.
45:40
Like if you keep stopping, is that important?
45:43
Quitting is that important? You know, like that's not you
45:46
can keep going. You know, like whatever you're
45:48
dealing with now, this too shall pass.
45:51
You felt like you had reached a breaking point, right?
45:55
And you were so frustrated losing the money, having these
45:58
trucks ruined by having the wrong fuel in there.
46:00
You you just snapped you, you threw the you threw the
46:03
proverbial and, and the literal cinder block through the
46:06
windshield. And it sounds like that, that
46:10
that sort of snapped you out of it at least later that day where
46:13
you're like, hang on a second. Yeah, that was frustrating.
46:16
But look how far I've come. I don't have to fill up my gas
46:19
tank three times a day now, right?
46:20
Like, I've made a lot of progress.
46:22
And if I keep going, I've got momentum.
46:25
I'm I'm going to keep making more progress.
46:27
This is going to start to click even more.
46:29
Yeah. So basically, don't give up.
46:31
And that's what I'm saying there.
46:33
Yeah, Don't let the little things force you to give.
46:35
Up. Just keep putting 1 foot in
46:36
front of the other. If you're doing the right
46:38
things, success is going to find its way to you.
46:41
And, and it's like the first conversation we had, it always
46:44
seems to be like, you get in these areas where, yes, it's
46:48
terrible. Yes, it's a prison.
46:50
But like, if you can think about it, like you're just in the
46:53
darkest portion of the tunnel, you know, like one of my mentors
46:57
with all this events is that you're like, it's like a
47:00
staircase and you can only see the next step and it's all
47:04
black. So you don't know where you're
47:05
going, but you know, every time you take a step, you're going up
47:08
like you just got to get to the next step.
47:09
And then the one after that will light up a little bit.
47:13
I love this and I think this is really important for people
47:16
listening to hear right, because they're going to check out your
47:20
business, they're going to see your press.
47:22
You got this book deal. It's like, oh, Rob's got it
47:25
made. Like this is a guy that's just
47:27
he's confident. He knows what he's doing.
47:29
He was Born This Way. You know what they don't see,
47:31
what they don't know, what they don't understand is behind the
47:33
scenes, you know, there's a lot of struggle, there's a lot of
47:36
strife there. There were moments where I don't
47:38
know if this is going to work. Maybe I should just throw in the
47:40
towel. And so I think I think, you
47:43
know, if you if you got even more words sort of an
47:45
inspiration to share like that about some of the tough times
47:48
that you've been through and just put one foot in front of
47:51
the other to make it through that dark tunnel, I think I
47:54
think this is really helpful for people to hear.
47:56
Absolutely. Yeah.
47:59
And a lifetime of tough times like that, like, like just
48:05
driving, looking at people like, Oh my God, like I have the
48:09
worst, you know, leaving Brooklyn in a box truck and not
48:12
making money while they were working all day.
48:14
Like, and if you know anything about like Brooklyn, it's the
48:17
hardest place to drive at it like 4 hours of traffic.
48:21
And like, I remember days where like we would lose money or we
48:24
would underestimate the job and we'd be driving home like we
48:27
just did all that. But not so frustrating where
48:32
other times where like a limo driver in our parking lot where
48:38
we parked at a storage facility, backed into the truck and the
48:41
truck was idling and the two clanish guys that were in the
48:44
truck who was really close to were not liable.
48:48
But this driver called his boss and his boss wanted to put in a
48:53
claim. Now we know it wasn't our fault,
48:57
but getting a mover's license was extremely hard and took me
49:00
years. And there's like one company or
49:03
two that ensures movers people with mover's licenses.
49:06
And we had just gotten that like a month before and we were
49:09
operating before that. It was like a delivery company
49:11
and clean outs. And we worked for like 3 years
49:14
to get that license and I couldn't take the claim.
49:18
So I was telling him pay him the $1000, just let him go fix it.
49:22
And they're like, we're refused. And I'm like, no, we have to
49:25
protect the company right now. We have to protect the company.
49:29
So it's like decisions like that, you know where you're
49:31
like, Oh my God, like, like you're, you're not just doing,
49:35
you're not just making a financial loss.
49:37
Like you're almost like feel it, like you feel like, wow, I'm
49:42
getting I'm I'm the schmuckier, you know, like I'm the one I
49:46
got. I got to eat this and I'm
49:48
totally in the right. But the higher purpose is no, I
49:51
have to protect. Well, and that's why you're in
49:54
the leadership position, right? Because you can see the chess
49:56
board better than the guys that you had driving the trucks.
49:59
They're like, hey, we're not wrong.
50:01
We're not going to pay him money.
50:02
You're like, I get it. We're not in the wrong here.
50:04
But there's a bigger picture at play.
50:06
There's we, we got to look at the chess board and see what the
50:08
big vision is for the company. So hard to get that license.
50:11
We can't risk losing it now. Exactly.
50:14
Yeah, Rob, what's a fun fact that most people wouldn't know
50:17
about you? Fun fact that nobody most people
50:26
wouldn't know. I love beach volleyball and I
50:30
love concerts and comedy shows and I love talking to people.
50:36
You love playing beach volleyball or watching it, or
50:39
both. I mean, I'm sure watching it's
50:42
pretty good too, but playing it, play it.
50:45
Yeah, and what's your favorite kind of music?
50:48
Lately it's been country. I mean, I love all.
50:51
I'm huge into hip hop, huge into like soft rock, Elton John,
50:55
Billy Joel. Lately, country number is what I
50:58
play all day. I love country so.
51:01
That's a wide range of interests there.
51:03
Absolutely. Rob, are there any specific
51:05
mentors or books that have been particularly helpful to you and
51:10
shaping you or your professional career?
51:15
Absolutely mentors on a personal level, the owners of Vincent's,
51:21
you know, they helped me. They would sit with me as a
51:24
waiter when I bought a box truck, like after the shift and
51:26
just like give me advice if I asked them.
51:29
And I appreciated that so much. Audio books wise #1 Alchemist,
51:36
without a doubt. Not a business book, but you
51:39
need it first before you, if you're going to like, you know,
51:44
start a company yourself. Like what's the summary of that
51:47
book? How how's it helped you?
51:49
Like the universe is just malleable.
51:52
Like it's just, it moves. It's like, you know, water.
51:56
It just, it'll go away if you put your mind to it, you know?
51:59
And there's so many different like quotes in that book that
52:04
you can point out, like everybody has such a clear idea
52:09
of how other people should lead their lives, but never any clue
52:12
about their own. Like when you're going through
52:14
it, like I say this in the Cinderbox story, like every big
52:16
mistake is like a viral invitation to alert the
52:19
naysayers and advice critters. Like all of a sudden, like you
52:23
call people now 20 years later and they can't believe what
52:28
you're telling them, but they 100% believe what you're telling
52:31
them is going to happen. Whereas in the past they're
52:34
telling you how wrong you are, how you have no idea what you're
52:37
talking about, how you're out of your mind, but then you like
52:39
prove yourself time and time again.
52:41
And then they're like, are you kidding me?
52:44
No, well, you know what I mean. Like it, it's a different type
52:47
of not believing. They believe it.
52:50
They just are in disbelief of it.
52:53
So like that would go to that quote and like just all about
52:57
like your personal legend, like how you can see like what you
53:01
want out of life. And you you're not too old.
53:04
Like you could, you could, you're not too young.
53:06
You can do what you want to do when you want to do it.
53:09
Like this is kind of like the world itself is.
53:13
I mean, I know there's things that happen in life that destroy
53:17
people, but you could kind of think about things a different
53:22
way in most circumstances. Rob, I have just one more
53:25
question for you, but before I ask it, I want to do 2 things.
53:28
First of all, if you're listening today and you like
53:30
today's content, please hit the subscribe, like or share button
53:33
on your favorite podcast app. The second thing I want to do is
53:36
tell people what's the best way to get in touch with you.
53:41
Our phone number is 516-595-7420 to our corporate office.
53:47
On Instagram, we're at US relocators.com and our website
53:52
is US relocators.com. Great.
53:54
Rob, last question for you. I'm curious, how do you see the
53:58
industry that you're involved in evolving in the next five years?
54:01
What are some of the big changes that are coming?
54:05
I think, I mean, I think there'll always be a need for
54:09
it. As long as, you know, we don't
54:13
invent like like teleporting, you know what I mean?
54:17
I don't see how there could not be a need for it.
54:23
I'm very curious to see, like, what we're doing with all this
54:26
stuff. Like, you just keep, you know,
54:28
like my kids, like Daddy, I want this.
54:31
And they press a button. OK.
54:32
When's it coming? It's like they think it's coming
54:34
to the door. And they're right.
54:35
You know what I mean? Like, they'll be there in an
54:37
hour, which is crazy. So it's like we're just gonna
54:41
keep accumulating. Like it's gotta go more
54:43
minimalistic as an industry. I think kind of like what I'm
54:48
doing, like putting a lot of services together because I
54:53
don't think the old school like just moving company or just self
54:58
storage or just clean out company, I don't think it'll
55:02
have teeth going forward. I think it's got to be a multi
55:04
level approach to the industry. So it's got to be more like
55:08
transitioning out of the home. Rob, I want to be the first one
55:13
to thank you for sharing your time and your story with us
55:16
today. I really appreciate it.
55:17
Anthony is a pleasure. Thank you for being.
55:19
Thank you for interview. Folks, that's a wrap on another
55:22
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
55:25
Thanks for learning with us today.