Latest / Movified / The Government Sued Meathead Movers for $15 Million! Here Is How Aaron Steed Fought Back and Won!

Transcript

The Government Sued Meathead Movers for $15 Million! Here Is How Aaron Steed Fought Back and Won! · Movified

0:06
Everything that's happened to me has happened for a reason.
0:09
Everything has has taught me what I needed to know.
0:12
What I've learned over the years is to be less fearful, to be
0:16
less scared, to not care what other people think, to do what
0:21
you feel is right and to find what really matters to you and
0:28
go all in on it. Because all of us, especially in
0:32
our industry, are going to have difficult times, hard seasons,
0:35
things where it, it, it doesn't, you know, make sense on paper.
0:39
But if you are truly passionate about what you do and you love
0:43
what you do, you're going to. start of the week where real
0:55
movers reset, refocus and rise. Rise.
0:59
Alright, every moving company has a name because sometimes it
1:03
just means more than that. They become a brand, a
1:06
reputation and identity recognized.
1:10
Instantly you hear that name, you automatically know where
1:12
where to go. And when that happens, you're no
1:15
longer just actually protecting your business.
1:17
You're protecting something much larger.
1:19
There's the culture, there's the growth, there's the realities
1:23
that can collide when you actually have this strong name
1:27
and growth that gets tied into it as well.
1:30
We see it with Van Lines. We see it with the large moving
1:33
companies that are out there. If you go back and you and you
1:36
talk to someone like Larry O'Toole from Gentle Giant, like
1:40
he lives and breathes about the culture and about the name and
1:43
what it represents. Well, today's guest is Aaron
1:45
Steed with Meathead Movers. I've been so excited to have
1:49
Aaron on here. We've been playing scheduling
1:51
tag for like over a year trying to get him on the show.
1:56
And this isn't just really about building a company, it's all
1:59
about what it costs to actually protect one.
2:03
So welcome to Modified. It's Modified Mondays And I'm
2:06
your host, Mark Hershey with Salmons and Ellis Moving and
2:09
Storage located in beautiful Vancouver, BC.
2:11
And today's guest is Aaron Steed with Meathead Movers, a
2:14
california-based moving company that has built one of the most
2:18
recognizable brands in the industry.
2:21
We are talking 8 locations, 300 employees up there for sure.
2:27
So, Aaron, welcome to the show. Thank you.
2:30
It's an honor to be here. I, I, I really appreciate it.
2:33
I told Aaron, man, you must be warm in that jacket.
2:35
I feel like I'm just overheating.
2:37
Maybe it's, I'm in the presence of like a celebrity here because
2:41
of your growth. But let's, I want to kind of
2:44
just like really hit it back right from the start.
2:47
We were chatting before the show kicked in.
2:49
You know, both of us have been industry for over 20 years.
2:52
You've been even in it longer. Meathead movers is going on.
2:56
It's on his 29th year. It's going into 30.
2:59
Can we like rewind this this clock back to when you were 17
3:03
and and what was going through your head of going?
3:06
Hey I want to start a. Moving company, right?
3:08
Yeah. Look, I need to figure out a way
3:10
to make money while going to school and playing sports.
3:12
Parents didn't, you know, give me much money.
3:15
I was very, very focused on wrestling.
3:18
And one of my friends, parents asked us, hey, will you help us
3:22
move? And we did it.
3:24
And I instantly loved it. We got barbecued steaks, got a
3:29
$50 handshake, and also just a lot of appreciation and like
3:34
genuine gratitude from adults. And as a, you know, young man,
3:39
as an adolescent, I really, really needed and craved it at
3:43
that time and I quickly fell in love.
3:45
Being able to work with your friends, get paid to work out
3:47
was was a bonus too. Yeah, for no, for sure.
3:50
And was this something that you started like on your own?
3:52
So you, you're trying to figure out how to make money.
3:55
You just go solo. Like you just graduate from
3:57
school and now you're going, OK, how do I get a truck?
4:01
Like how how did that be getting going?
4:03
Because you're rewinding the clock 30 years.
4:05
I mean, we're talking, you know, late 90s here.
4:08
Yeah, So it was 1997. I was a junior in high school,
4:12
my brother was a freshman. I was the team captain in the
4:15
wrestling team. So I, you know, sold all the
4:18
jobs, organized all the jobs. And what was so funny is we
4:21
didn't even have a truck, like not even a pickup truck or a
4:25
car. So literally the clients would
4:27
rent the Uhaul or Ryder truck, pick us up at our parents house
4:31
and take us to the moving site. We provide, you know, the labour
4:35
and the deal was pay us whatever you think we're worth.
4:37
So if we didn't hustle, if we broke things, you know, you
4:40
don't have to pass anything. My sales pitch was, you know,
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we're dedicated athletes, we're going to work really hard, we're
4:45
going to do a great job, pay us whatever you think we're worth.
4:48
And that's what we did for the first couple years and it worked
4:53
out, you know? So I think that this is wild.
4:57
I love this. So you kind of get started.
5:00
You're you're kicking things off?
5:02
When does the name What? Like what were you guys tossing
5:05
around a moving company name at the time?
5:08
Were you thinking this is legit or just like a great like side
5:11
piece while you're focusing on wrestling?
5:13
Because you you went pretty far in wrestling as well, too.
5:17
Yeah, I did alright. Not I, I never knew how far I
5:20
would actually go cause I actually dropped out of college
5:22
to focus on the business. But yeah, it was certainly my
5:25
focus. I had dreams to, you know,
5:28
Russell, you know, in the Olympics and stuff like that.
5:31
I didn't even come close, but really loved the sport a lot and
5:36
did a lot and still connected to it.
5:38
Was just at the US Open two weeks ago supporting one of my
5:41
friends at college wrestling teammates who took third, which
5:43
is really exciting. But what happened is within the
5:47
first few months we realized, you know, something was clicking
5:50
where our clients were telling us these were the best moving
5:53
experiences they've ever had. I took a lot of pride in being
5:57
able to provide employment opportunities, you know, for my
6:01
close friends. And I was building something
6:03
with my brother, which felt really good.
6:05
And it just then we started advertising in the classified
6:13
services and ad directories. I don't know if you're old
6:16
enough to remember those, but they're OK.
6:20
But you know, for like 45 bucks every month, you could get just
6:24
line text to talk about, you know, although your lawn or I'll
6:28
I'll pressure wash your driveway, you know, and I was
6:31
like, I'm the move guy. And then we'll, we just called
6:33
ourselves meatheads really as a joke.
6:36
The name was kind of bestowed a nickname to us because from the
6:42
time high school ended to the time wrestling freestyle Greco
6:46
Roman wrestling practice was which was like 5:30 at night.
6:49
We'd be in the weight room getting the way equipment
6:51
sweating and as we leave, the girls volleyball team would come
6:54
in and they would, you know, harass us and call us a bunch of
6:57
meatheads for It was just kind of like a funny thing and didn't
7:01
realize how far would go or how the the name would stick.
7:05
A lot of people tried to convince me to change the name,
7:07
but we never did. I'm glad we.
7:08
Didn't It's crazy when, and I don't want to go down the rabbit
7:11
hole of how you know society has changed and evolved, but what
7:17
year did you graduate? From high school in 98.
7:20
And 98, so I, I'm two years younger than you.
7:22
And I mean, back then when we would go to the gym, like
7:25
everybody was called like meat heads.
7:27
Like you were just big meathead in the gym bulking up, right.
7:30
I was also in wrestling. Like it was kind of the running
7:33
joke, right? Like it was, it was what it's
7:35
called. And I love that.
7:37
So you and your brother, you're now in, in college, you're
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seeing something, things are kind of picking up.
7:45
You know, we're fast forwarding now, you know, let's say three
7:48
years into the business, this transition period.
7:51
Like were you guys doing any research going, oh, like we
7:55
better know what a floor runner is or like wardrobe boxes or
7:58
dollies? How were you?
7:59
Were you just getting moving pads and just hoping for the
8:01
best? No, you know, the client would
8:04
rent the truck and rent the moving blankets and, you know,
8:06
all of the supplies. And then after about a year, we
8:10
started getting more organized where my friends who had pickup
8:12
trucks would then meet at a storage unit and we would have,
8:17
you know, centralized dollies and tool boxes and and not pads,
8:21
but tie down rope. But the client would have to
8:23
rent the the pads. So then when something got
8:25
broken or damage would say, well, you didn't run enough
8:27
pads, sure, but it but but but that's how that's how we started
8:35
doing jobs for a couple years until we were able to finally
8:41
get our first fleet of trucks, which is a really cool story
8:44
too. So.
8:45
Keep going. I want to I want to know because
8:47
to me, you know, everybody kind of goes through this pipe dream
8:51
in the beginning going. I really want to grow.
8:53
I'm going to be this big successful moving company and
8:56
I'm part of MASH RAN groups and hold my own where you see guys
8:59
that are always at that half million or that million and a
9:02
half, you know, and when you do the math of how many trucks need
9:06
to, you know, keep that going and have that those numbers,
9:10
they're really not that busy, right?
9:12
And so you get now to this point where you're going to start
9:16
getting a fleet of trucks. Like, how does that, like, tell,
9:19
tell us a story of how that comes into being?
9:22
Yeah, so as we started to get more experience, we then started
9:26
doing long term leases on U hauls and renting a little
9:31
commercial yard, you know, in the in the cheapest district in
9:34
town. And we started driving U hauls
9:38
to to clients trucks, sorry to clients jobs.
9:42
And then I went to a bank and said, hey, look, you know, we're
9:46
spending 78, $1000 a month on all of these rental trucks.
9:51
We did some math and if we bought 5 brand new moving
9:56
trucks, the financing cost would be about the same.
10:01
Would you be willing to do that? And based upon our projections
10:06
and our past experiences with no credit, with no cosigners, we
10:11
were able to qualify for a $300,000 loan at the time.
10:15
And it just, it just absolutely blew my mind and it changed the
10:18
entire trajectory, you know, of our business.
10:21
And then all of a sudden, you know, we were legit and, and it,
10:26
it, it felt like we had arrived. And then we really then started
10:31
focusing on, OK, now that we have these trucks and we are
10:34
starting to have some significant fixed expenses, how
10:37
do we gain credibility and change the, the consumer
10:43
decision to, instead of going with the van lines at the time,
10:46
who seemed like the most professional, incredible moving
10:49
company, How do we change it to us?
10:51
We're an independent hiring athletes and, you know, I think
10:56
I was like 21 or 22 at the time. So it was a, it was a fun
11:00
challenge and we, we put our all into it for, for a lot of years
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trying to get over that hump. But yeah, it was challenging,
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was an all inexperience. And had I been like married with
11:11
kids and whatnot, I don't think I would have been able to have
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made it because part of the process was like living on damn
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near nothing, you know, to, and just going all in, putting
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What were some of the those beginning stages like?
13:27
Because you, you, you mentioned athletes and, and, and how
13:32
you're hiring. Was there, was there like an an
13:36
outlook where you're kind of going, OK, well, I know a bunch
13:39
of the guys on the sports teams in college and you're just, hey,
13:42
do you want to make some extra money?
13:43
And is that something that you recommend?
13:45
I always try and tell, you know, we had Derek Potter on the show
13:48
recently, you know, from firefighting's finest where he
13:52
talked about, you know, really gauge engaging in the
13:55
firefighters for employment to hire.
13:57
And you just kind of have this sense of not expectation, but
14:02
there's always like that sense of discipline, right?
14:06
Like you almost. It's like how we look at things
14:09
going well. If you are an athlete, that
14:11
means you show discipline on getting up in the morning,
14:13
staying healthy, staying active, staying fit, you know, pretty
14:18
clean cut for the most for the most of it.
14:20
And same with firefighters as well, too.
14:22
So is was that really your angle of going well?
14:25
I don't want to just hire anybody.
14:26
We really want to build a culture on individuals that are,
14:31
you know, healthy fit. Like how how did that kind of
14:34
run about, especially in your in your 20s?
14:36
You're like, alright guys, Like I just want to hire all my
14:38
buddies, right? Right, right.
14:40
Well, I mean, you know, all my buddies were athletes because
14:43
that that's what I did. You know, even though I was on
14:45
the high school wrestling team, I was, you know, wrestling with
14:48
the junior college and the D1 program here locally.
14:51
We have a big mixed martial arts community in San Luis Obispo, CA
14:56
that I was able to tap into these people or my peers.
14:59
They're my friends. And something that naturally
15:01
just organically kind of happened is we would jog when
15:04
not carrying anything. So it put something into the
15:06
truck and then boom, jog to get more.
15:09
And since we, along with other companies charged on the hourly
15:11
rate, it saved our customers money.
15:13
They saw the hustle, they appreciated it.
15:16
It was a complete, you know, stark contrast from the typical
15:20
moving experience where maybe the movers were like dragging
15:22
out the clock, taking smoke breaks.
15:24
And we prided ourselves on that, you know, job standard.
15:29
And then it kept the momentum going and it there was like
15:33
endorphins and it felt like a really great workout.
15:37
So, and then over the years, you know, it's not just you have to
15:41
be an athlete or you have to, we will hire anyone regardless of,
15:45
you know, you're how old you are, what you look like, what
15:47
gender you are, if you can do the job, you know, we're
15:50
interested in hiring you. And that's, that's how it's
15:53
always been, you know, and it's, it's been amazing, even though
15:56
like when we're in high school, the assistant football coach who
15:59
was, you know, a little bit older was working for us.
16:02
We've got lots of women work for us.
16:03
So it's all about like, can you do the job or not?
16:07
But early on there was that high, there was that expectation
16:12
of like lifting heavy things and then running to get more, all
16:14
while maintaining a happy, upbeat, enthusiastic attitude
16:17
for the customer and working for the tip.
16:20
And there's a peer pressure on these jobs to do that because if
16:22
you're working with someone who's hustling and increasing
16:25
the tip potential for you, you're going to want to work
16:27
with that person. If someone is a detractor and
16:30
hurting the other crew members ability to get a tip because
16:36
they're not keeping up, they don't have a good attitude,
16:38
they're, you know, not being conscientious when handling or
16:41
assembling or disassembling, that feedback gets received and
16:46
we take action on it too. So we try to operate with a
16:50
similar ethos of like a sports team with a military inspired
16:54
training program with, you know, professional business.
16:57
It can all mixed into one and it's endlessly fascinating, a
17:01
lot of fun and constantly evolving.
17:03
I don't feel like we've arrived yet.
17:06
Who was taking like the business schooling while this was all
17:09
going on? Because I'm thinking of a 21
17:13
year old Aaron, you don't have, you know, AI to to support you
17:18
to search a bunch of things. You don't have the the other
17:22
moving companies or experience it to reach out to.
17:25
There's no groups out there. There's no nothing.
17:28
And you now have a fleet of trucks.
17:30
You're growing exponentially. You are now marketing your
17:34
brand. Yeah, you're becoming a a
17:37
stronger competitor in the California market.
17:40
And I and I, I want to stop at, you know, when you start going,
17:44
we need a second location. But at what point do you and
17:48
your brother then turn around going, do we even know what
17:51
we're doing here? Or was there, did you guys have
17:53
some like ability to reach out or who were, who were those
17:56
factors in your lives to go? How do we do this and, and how
18:01
do we make sure that we're following proper employment
18:03
practices and, and business practices?
18:06
Yeah. Yeah, You know, we've always
18:09
leaned hard on one of the nice things about knowing you're not
18:13
the smartest guy in the room is feeling pretty comfortable with
18:16
asking for help. And we've always asked for a lot
18:18
of help. You know, my my brother never
18:20
went to a day at College in his life.
18:22
I went to some college, But to be honest, I don't think it
18:26
really transferred over very much.
18:28
I mean, my main motivation for going to college was wrestling,
18:30
for sure. Yeah.
18:31
Yeah. But you know, people like our
18:35
company that I feel like, and if you have a genuine connection
18:38
with someone, they are really willing to help.
18:41
For example, our insurance company, their HR director
18:46
basically worked for me part time at no additional cost.
18:49
And we leveraged all of the employee handbooks, all of the
18:51
updates, all of the, you know, the latest and greatest what's
18:54
going on with employment law within California, which is, you
18:57
know, quite cumbersome. You know, you have to pay a lot
19:01
of attention to it. And there's also one of my Cal
19:06
Poly classes. I, there was a professor by the
19:09
name of, of Art Young. And I was just enamored with Mr.
19:15
Young's knowledge. Everything he said made complete
19:19
sense to me. And I started asking him to
19:23
coffee and to lunch and he mentored me and then eventually
19:26
started working for us part time.
19:28
And he put a lot of systems and processes in place.
19:31
And, you know, he was a brilliant guy with an MBA that
19:38
didn't, you know, just loved helping young people who had
19:41
good energy, I think. And he worked with us for two
19:45
years and helped set up a lot of our systems.
19:47
But I think what really helped us out and anyone who's read the
19:53
book Emeth by Michael Gerber, I'm just kind of a business
19:56
classic, you know, to work on your business and not in your
20:00
business. And then for a while we started
20:02
thinking, you know, eventually we want to franchise because we
20:04
think this is a franchise able business.
20:06
And then we start looking at our businesses, how if we were to
20:09
franchise, how do we do that? Even though we've never
20:11
franchised, I believe we're similar, we're structured
20:14
similar to franchise. So we started looking at
20:18
franchise tools and franchise type.
20:22
Services and we started going into the IFA conferences and
20:26
just seeing how they can support a business with, you know
20:29
different locations. But I think the most important
20:32
thing is to have an agreed upon structure for your business.
20:37
We, you know used to have standard operating procedures
20:41
and the Internet came out and then we had our own Wikipedia
20:45
service that where all of the learnt captured learned
20:51
learnings were in one database. And then we also imitated the
20:55
military armed forces as far as how they structured their
20:59
training programs, where there's knowledge and qual cards and
21:02
supervisors who need to sign off vouching for your competency and
21:05
what you know and what you know how to do.
21:07
So it's like once you understand a system or a structure for how
21:11
to capture information and then to continuously find, tweak it.
21:21
I think that's the key, but then also having the discipline to do
21:24
it. And even, and I'm really
21:29
grateful that at a young age we focused on our business and we
21:34
would not so much working in our business, but we were always
21:37
working on it. And we were able to capture a
21:40
lot of procedures. And when we'd make a mistake or
21:43
pay it on big claim or really let down a client or have some
21:46
sort of employment issue, we would look at our processes and,
21:49
and make those tweaks and make those improvements.
21:53
But it, it's a, it's a mindset, it's a decision.
21:56
And I, I, I don't, I haven't been able to functionally work
22:00
in the business and on the business at the same time.
22:02
It's kind of one or the other. You know, you're going to make
22:05
less money by working on the business.
22:07
Yeah, cause you have to replace that person working in it.
22:09
But it all has to back in and make sense to, you know, 4 or
22:14
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24:12
Now the SOP is in place. We talked about the importance
24:15
of kind of, you know, when you, when you're thinking of a, a
24:18
time frame of going, OK, we, we should maybe look into
24:22
franchising. We can see the growth.
24:24
We actually have the playbooks kind of made for our like our
24:27
head office, our OG location. What?
24:32
Size were you and what made you then want to open up a second
24:35
location and how far away was that second location?
24:39
In San Luis Obispo, we turned into the dominant moving company
24:43
in around 2003, 2004 and we started in 97 as a, you know,
24:50
just a labour service. We opened up our second location
24:55
in Camarillo, CA, which is about two hours away because those are
25:00
the next, you know, major area. That was just kind of the next
25:06
step. It was just South of Santa
25:08
Barbara and Santa Barbara was the most S you know, that we
25:12
went and actually my friend who I went to go support the US Open
25:17
a few weeks ago, the one who's from Camarillo.
25:20
So I got to know the area really well, just like going back home,
25:23
visiting him, his family and his friends and whatnot when I was
25:26
in my college years. And it just seemed like a a
25:29
great areas, northern Los Angeles where I felt like there
25:34
was a community to it. There was a community feel.
25:37
And I think once people in the community know and understand
25:40
who meat head movers is, what we do, how we provide, you know, I
25:47
think meaningful change, you know, to the community with the
25:50
moves that we do for victims of domestic violence and we try to
25:53
improve the lives of our employees that it, we, we feel
25:57
that the community would like hopefully support us and want to
25:59
get behind us. So that was the, you know, that
26:02
was our second office. And then we it and we are really
26:06
nervous about, you know, can we remote, can we actually run this
26:10
office 2. Hours away, too.
26:12
And I, I personally moved down there for a year and worked
26:16
really, really hard and we had a lot of fun.
26:20
But there are also some really major setbacks that, you know,
26:23
we, we didn't think we were going to make it at times, but
26:26
but yeah, that's how that works some of.
26:28
Those setbacks, Oh my. Gosh, so in 2007 you're like
26:32
all. Right now you've opened up this.
26:33
Yeah, yeah. No, in 2000, warmed up.
26:36
Yeah, no. In 2007, that's that's when
26:39
phone book was still king. You know, like right before the
26:43
Internet came out and you know the deal when you are
26:47
negotiating phone book ads for those who are old enough to
26:50
remember this, if you. Yeah, yeah.
26:54
So if you went up, it didn't cost very much, but if you
26:57
stayed the same or went down, it like cost just about the same
27:00
because they they keep wanting you to go up, right.
27:03
So we went from being the major advertiser in sales, Obispo and
27:07
Santa Barbara County to all of a sudden I had a meeting for the
27:11
next year where we were going all into Ventura County and
27:14
Northern Los Angeles County. And Long story short, I was able
27:19
to negotiate a really, really great deal where we were able to
27:23
get, you know, eighty $90,000 of advertising for just a few $1000
27:29
more because we are going up so much because the theory is if
27:33
you go up, then the competitors are going to want to go up.
27:36
So I we secure this deal. We make it worth our while.
27:41
I agree that hey on our renewals will go up in price, but I just
27:45
really need you to help us out this year as we, you know,
27:48
launch into this new market. I borrowed as much money as I
27:51
possibly could in order to go into Ventura County.
27:54
And then a couple months goes by and then two or three weeks
27:59
before the book goes to print, the this guy in a suit walks
28:04
into the office, demands to speak with me, says that he's
28:06
from corporate at AT&T Yellow Pages and that he's not going to
28:12
honor our deal. And so I meet with them just
28:15
like, well, hey, you know, you got this contract right here,
28:20
says that you are going to honor the deal.
28:22
He's like, no, we're not going to honor that deal.
28:25
I was just like, I have a signed agreement with you guys and you
28:27
guys are gonna honor this deal. He's like, no, we're not.
28:29
And then he said, look, oh, sorry, no.
28:35
Then I told him that I was going to sue him.
28:37
And then he laughed, walked out of the office and said, yeah,
28:40
good luck, meathead movers suing a multibillion dollar, you know,
28:45
publicly traded corporation. And my heart beat was pumping so
28:49
hard at this point. I had secured a lease for like a
28:52
5000 square foot office. I had plans for, you know, to
28:56
move like four or five of my employees down to Ventura
28:58
County. We had taken out the loan like
29:01
it was. It was go time.
29:04
And then I didn't call him back. He didn't call me back.
29:07
The book goes to print and we're nowhere to be found in the
29:12
Yellow Pages. Nowhere to be found.
29:15
Yeah, so we're just like, Oh my gosh.
29:19
So then we we ordered like 300,000 door hangers and we
29:25
devised a plan. We we decided to expand anyways.
29:28
We devised a plan where we knocked on every single door
29:31
that wasn't behind a gated gate and entered.
29:35
We had a script and we introduced ourselves to every
29:38
single person and left a door hanger in a coupon in Ventura
29:43
County. You know, wow, 300,300 thousand
29:47
door hangers. And this was also during the
29:50
time where the Internet was just supposed to take off and we
29:55
ended up suing them and we won. And then the money that we got
30:00
helped us launch a website which was ahead of its time.
30:04
And it helped us like surge past because the Internet was quickly
30:10
took over the Yellow Pages and we were able to.
30:15
So what seemed like the biggest problem in the world to actually
30:19
turned out to be a great opportunity and and.
30:23
And back then, if you were CVS, you could fill up your website
30:26
with so many keywords. Oh yeah, Google isn't around.
30:29
And you could be like #1 on everything.
30:31
And Oh yeah, and we were. All times when we were yeah.
30:35
And we totally were. And it it was yeah.
30:39
It was crazy. I used.
30:41
To, I used to try and buy like every domain name that had like
30:44
a different city in our area and they build these different
30:47
little websites and just fill it with like meta keywords.
30:52
And you would be spiked and you would, and, and for the longest
30:55
time too, you would sit on page one in like the top one or two.
30:58
And then I had like two or three other moving companies and I
31:01
would just have them like right after another.
31:04
So that first page for Vancouver movers had all my moving
31:07
companies just listed on there. And they would just phone
31:10
different phone numbers and it would get like the same sales
31:12
person or another person in my office.
31:13
And I'm like, what do you give for that rate?
31:15
They're like got on 99 an hour and I'm like, what we'll do for
31:18
95 an hour, Right. So, Oh yeah.
31:20
Or like we'll do it for 110. Yeah.
31:22
He's used to be crazy times. You, you give me some fun
31:25
flashbacks. You you leaving though for a
31:29
year at a time where your head office is growing, your brother
31:35
staying in charge, you're now stepping aside.
31:40
What was that like? I mean, you said it was exciting
31:42
times and everything, but where did you start realizing that
31:46
there was cracks and think like, you know, that the train wasn't
31:50
really on the tracks as well at the head office where things
31:53
were kind of going sideways? Or were you guys still making
31:55
sure everything was still smooth sailings to allow you to leave
31:58
for a year? No, I, you know, I thought my
32:01
brother was actually a pretty strong operator and you know,
32:06
granted you know, I'm talking like 2007, 2008, I don't
32:09
remember any major setbacks, you know, operationally or
32:11
structurally. I was more focused on, on sales
32:16
and marketing and, you know, securing investment and just
32:21
kind of working on the direction that we were going and
32:27
successfully launching a new branch was critical to our
32:32
success and we could not afford to have it flop.
32:36
So but I, I felt like my, my brother and the team that we had
32:40
in place did a really good job. And we, we've always had a
32:44
centralized call centre. You know, we tried to
32:47
centralized as much as centralized accounting,
32:49
centralized marketing. So we've always tried to
32:53
centralized as much as possible, kind of like a hub and spoke
32:55
type type system. And we were.
32:57
Learning this though, like especially back then, that this
33:00
was the way to do it for for in order to grow.
33:04
I mean, you know, if you're interested enough in something,
33:07
you kind of become a student of it, you know, as, as, you know,
33:09
like you want to learn about it, you're interested in it, You can
33:12
see the, the benefits and you also have a healthy amount of
33:16
fear for the pain and downside of it if it doesn't work out.
33:19
So I, I really don't think that what we do is terribly
33:24
complicated. I, I, I think that they're
33:27
living in street. It's, it's very common there.
33:30
There's a lot of common sense and granted, you know, we need
33:33
some sophisticated systems and AI back, you know, SAS software
33:39
platforms that integrate and there there are things now that
33:42
make it complicated, but at the very rudimentary, like
33:46
fundamental truth of moving, it's about trying to attract and
33:51
retain great people, train them to do a good job.
33:54
That's sort of moving. We do is not hyper specialized.
33:56
We don't move grand pianos or, or, or hot tubs or anything that
34:05
is very, you know, specialized. You know, we, we don't do
34:08
crating. We, we focus on the basic
34:10
household good items, the 95% and we try to do that really,
34:16
really well and then treat the customer really, really well.
34:19
And we make mistakes. And when we do, we try to learn
34:23
from it. And then we try to make sure
34:26
that our people understand and communicate are are communicated
34:29
that and that they actually understand it and take the time
34:31
to confirm that they understand it and over and over and over
34:34
and over and over again. But it's, it's, um, I think when
34:40
you boil it down to that, it's, it's to me, that's what kind of
34:44
makes it manageable too. And, and, and makes it
34:48
attainable. It's like we're never that.
34:50
It's like, if you're really good at implementing new system or
34:52
process, hopefully it increases your margins by 1 or 2%.
34:56
And if you keep doing things that increase your margin by 1
34:58
or 2%, you should be able to make a really big difference at
35:02
the end of the year. Unfortunately, it never works
35:03
out that way, but that's what kind of gives me going.
35:06
And it like kind of is, is, is motivating.
35:09
I'm sure you go through like similar exercises too, as you're
35:11
implementing new all the targeting.
35:13
Yeah, right. Like for sure.
35:15
Now you you get to a point, you now have three locations, right?
35:20
There's the Aventura kills it. You guys are are are rocking it.
35:25
We are now in, you know, 20/10/2011.
35:28
The growth is coming out. We were slowly making our way to
35:31
2026 here, but now things are just moving.
35:35
What were some of your big first hires as you were now growing
35:39
going OK, this is becoming bigger than me and my brother
35:42
like Oh yeah. And and also was that always the
35:48
plan? Like you're like, OK, you find
35:50
opportunity, we let's open up this location.
35:52
Was there a lot of like planning ahead?
35:55
You know, when you have your yearly goals and, and where you
35:57
want to, where you want to sit as a company, You know, you're
36:02
trying to now find like that fifth, the 6th, the 7th, all
36:04
these different locations at any point.
36:07
This is like a huge winded question.
36:09
This is typical me, but are you also looking at purchasing
36:13
warehousing as well too? So that now you have real estate
36:15
in the game and you're becoming the McDonald's of the moving
36:18
industry in California and just kind of plotting different spots
36:21
to to buy. Yeah.
36:23
No, we, we own some of our real estate, you know, we're into
36:27
storage, tube vault storage and mini storage and we sold mini
36:32
storage, you know, and I, I think for us, I don't know how
36:36
it's been for you, but so much of business is how you react to
36:38
it. You know, I've had so many plans
36:41
that haven't worked out because when it comes down to it to like
36:43
open up that next office to buy that piece of real estate, it
36:46
just wasn't a good business decision.
36:48
Like where you thought you'd be and where you actually are to
36:50
completely different places. But then, but then the tides can
36:55
turn or you can meet someone and all of a sudden there are new
36:59
opportunities. And you got to ask yourself, are
37:01
you going to like execute on it or not?
37:04
You know, right now we have 8 offices and it's been 29 years.
37:07
And I think if you were to have asked me, you know, when I was a
37:10
teenager, hey, do you think after 29 years, how many offices
37:13
do you think you'd have? And I'll be like 200, right?
37:16
Yeah. It should just keep getting
37:18
easier. But man, it's, it's freaking
37:20
hard. You know, it's hard, it's hard
37:22
to do it right. So I don't know if that I I
37:25
don't know if that, but if you but.
37:26
Even if you look back and and let's and let's go back to the
37:29
young Aaron, you know, if you could rewind the clock now 30
37:33
years, Yeah. Knowing what you know now, what
37:36
advice would you give yourself in the beginning?
37:39
OHS that's. That's a good question.
37:41
Number one, I tell you honest to God, Mark, I have no regrets.
37:44
Everything that's happened to me has happened for a reason.
37:47
Everything God is good like it is.
37:51
Everything has has taught me what I needed to know at the
37:54
time that I needed that I needed to know it.
37:57
But I, I, I, I, But I, What I've learned over the years is to be
38:00
less fearful, to be less scared, to not care what other people
38:06
think, to do what you feel is right and to find what really
38:16
matters to you and go all in on it.
38:19
Because all of us, especially in our industry, are going to have
38:23
difficult times, hard seasons, things where it, it, it doesn't,
38:27
you know, make sense on paper. Think years where your CPA is
38:31
asking like, why are you doing this?
38:32
You know, but if you are truly passionate about what you do and
38:37
you love what you do, you're going to find the energy
38:43
reserves to overcome those difficult seasons.
38:47
And in the process, you're going to gain market share.
38:50
Other people are going to quit so much of businesses who's left
38:53
standing and, and, and I think there's a lot of purpose behind,
38:59
you know, what movers do and, and what moving companies can be
39:03
and become. And I absolutely love it.
39:07
I, I love going to work. I love the people who I work
39:09
with. I love serving our customers.
39:11
I love just being able to do something of true value, you
39:14
know, in, in the community and I feel like it it, it keeps me
39:19
young and will continue to keep me young being employee.
39:21
Focus and and I'm going to now start kind of addressing the
39:26
elephant in the room. Yeah, for all those that were
39:29
always keeping track and and being part of social media and
39:32
everything else, shit kind of went sideways for you.
39:36
Where the name, you know, got got not so much slandered, but
39:42
it got used in a sense of away for an employee or or for a
39:49
group of people to kind of turn around being like, oh, they're
39:52
segregating how we hire. They're they're you know, they,
39:56
they are. What's the word discriminating?
39:59
Discriminating. Thank you.
40:01
Discriminating against myself or against me and, and who I am.
40:04
And you know that, Aaron, I was a little bit overweight and he
40:08
didn't let me. He didn't let me, you know, get
40:10
the job. Can you touch it on that?
40:13
I mean, I'm kind of loosely joking around with it on it, But
40:16
I mean it's very gets very serious, especially when a lot
40:19
comes into play. Someone wants you know, it's
40:22
it's it's entering the news. It's becoming big.
40:25
And I know we briefly chatted and you were you were fired up
40:28
at the time going like bring me on the show, like I'm ready.
40:31
And then it was like, alright, no, we can't.
40:33
Like, you know, it's it's like you're saying for growth, you
40:36
sometimes you don't want to quickly execute your ideas or
40:41
your thoughts at times when you need to sleep on it and really
40:44
kind of hone on because it's a lot more serious than it is
40:47
because your brand and your reputation and being an employee
40:50
focused company is that big. So can you kind of touch on
40:54
everybody that was has been interested in going?
40:57
I would love to know how this you know what?
41:00
Happened, yeah. So what happened is my company,
41:04
Meathead Movers, was sued by the EEOC for age discrimination.
41:11
It all started in 2017 without a claimant, the EEOC, which was
41:17
nobody. There is nobody.
41:19
Nobody. No.
41:22
Mark. Mark Nobody raised their hand
41:25
and said that they were discriminated against by
41:27
meathead movers. The, the EEOC noticed our
41:31
company and, and I, I can't try to make up what was going
41:35
through their mind, but they decided unilaterally and on
41:38
their own to investigate meathead movers for age
41:43
discrimination in 2017. And what happened is we got a
41:49
letter saying that we're going to investigate you for age
41:51
discrimination. And I forwarded it to my
41:54
attorney and he said, don't worry about this.
41:57
He's like, we have vetted all of your systems and processes.
42:00
We have our annual reviews to send.
42:02
The other you guys are totally fine above board.
42:04
Everything's merit based. You are good to go, Aaron, don't
42:07
worry about it. Let's invite them in.
42:09
Let's show them everything we have.
42:11
I'll be there. And I'm sure that this will all
42:13
go away. So then what happens is, um, we,
42:20
we invite them in and they do their investigation, we talked
42:23
to them, we don't really think much of it.
42:25
And then we get a bill for $15 million.
42:28
What for $15 million? Huh.
42:34
On what account? Exactly.
42:38
They basically what they, they're, they, they're trying to
42:43
get me to agree to go out of business, which I, I just wasn't
42:48
willing to do for something that we never did.
42:50
It's always been about can you do the job or not?
42:52
It was kind of shocking. You know, it's like might as
42:56
well made it $15 billion, you know, like so we then went to
43:02
mediation. We had 4 failed mediations and
43:07
then we eventually settled this in September of 2000. 24 Wait,
43:16
no, sorry, September of 2025, Millions of dollars spent and it
43:24
turned into a national news story and it has been a huge
43:29
distraction. It has been by far the greatest
43:33
adversity I've ever dealt with professionally.
43:36
Um, It endlessly frustrating, totally unwarranted.
43:43
And my challenge is to, you know, see the, the value in it
43:48
and to, to see, you know, and to try to make the best out of it.
43:52
But it took some real hard looks in the mirror like, Hey, what
43:57
are you doing and why are you doing this?
43:58
You know, how much does this actually mean to you?
44:01
And, you know, we were able to endure it and there's a lot of
44:07
back and forth. There are a lot of things that
44:08
happen, some of the things I can talk about, some of the things I
44:10
can't talk about, but the end of the day, we were able to.
44:15
We were able to, um, get some new eyes to look at our
44:21
situation and we were able to come to a resolution that we
44:24
could afford. And meathead movers is able to
44:26
go on without us changing, you know, at all.
44:30
And, and we're going to be able to move past it.
44:33
But it was a significant setback and a huge distraction.
44:39
And it is. I'm so glad to be past it and to
44:43
move on from it 100. Percent.
44:45
I mean that to overcome something like that is a very
44:48
like David and Goliath story. And you know, I, I know a bunch
44:53
of us that are listening to this and watching right now tip our
44:56
hats to you because a lot of you know, a company owners growth or
45:01
no growth or wherever you're situated, probably would have
45:04
tossed the hat in, you know, going, is it really worth it for
45:07
me? Or, you know, where, where were
45:10
you at the right age? Where you go, OK, I can actually
45:13
bear this, you know, as opposed to being in your 60s, You're
45:16
like, peace out. Like this is crazy.
45:18
I've run my course. I've I've had my fun, but this
45:21
is just going to ruin my reputation and carry us down.
45:25
You know, when that first comes out, even in the first year of
45:30
trying to process this all, what was I you said it was a big
45:34
distraction. How was it for you like
45:37
emotionally, like just to be going through this where someone
45:40
is now attacking your integrity, your brothers integrity, the the
45:45
the status of the company and and you're thinking you've done
45:48
everything right those endlessly.
45:50
Frustrating. So much of this was trying to
45:52
reason with them for years and having failed mediations and
45:56
trying to just keep it quiet because I didn't want to
45:59
aggravate them and, you know, poke Goliath, you know, anymore,
46:03
they have endless, endless resources and they have this
46:06
idea of me and my company that I just completely disagree with.
46:12
But when the lawsuit hit and it became public and the Wall
46:18
Street Journal called me and wanted to and told me they're
46:21
going to do a story with her without my quotes and then Fox
46:25
News picked it up and then other out there was over 100 published
46:28
articles on it. What I realized Mark was I was
46:31
either meathead movers and the 300 jobs that go with it was
46:35
either going to quietly die or I was going to have to do
46:39
everything within my power to fight back as hard as I possibly
46:42
can. And then that's when we went on
46:45
the offence. And it was deeply saddening to
46:52
me because this is our federal government.
46:55
This is, I am so proud to be an American.
46:58
I love this country. I, meathead movers, would not be
47:03
here if it weren't for the SBA department.
47:05
You know, meathead movers wouldn't be here if it weren't
47:08
for so much of the government contracts and support that, you
47:12
know, we've received. I came so close to joining the
47:16
US Armed Forces, you know, out of high school in strongly
47:22
consider joining the Marines because I just loved everything
47:24
about, you know what what it stood for.
47:26
And but it's so cool to like represent this country in that
47:29
way and to be a attacked with the weight of the federal
47:36
government behind them and then to have to counter attack for
47:40
your own survival and knowing that.
47:43
And it wasn't just me, it was everyone else.
47:46
And I've had a lot of employees have been with me for a long
47:48
time who's vested their careers in this too, you know, like it
47:53
it it was meathead movers was meathead movers was was worth
47:58
fighting for. And it was incredibly,
48:02
incredibly hard on me and my wife.
48:06
My brother decided to sell the company a few months after the
48:08
lawsuit. It, you know, the bank tried
48:11
forcing us out because they got so nervous about it.
48:15
It was a tumultuous time, but truly by, by the grace of God
48:19
and by the support of a lot of people and the, we, we were able
48:27
to make it through and, and, and the support of, of my employees
48:30
that really took the reins and kept the day-to-day going
48:34
because, um, for me, it was an all in, like physically and
48:39
emotionally and mental, uh, commitment to beat this lawsuit
48:48
and to get past it. And it and and it, it consumed
48:52
me for for years, my like default thought process with
48:56
everything I do on the weekends at night, like every, it was all
48:59
about developing leverage, who I need to talk to, who I needed to
49:06
what angles I needed to, you know, who I need.
49:09
It was just, it was just endless because litigating with them
49:14
going back and forth and litigation with was just
49:17
bleeding me dry. I had to get to the top of the
49:19
agency. I had to get a fresh set of eyes
49:21
on it and, and fortunately, it's a long story, but we, I was able
49:28
to get that meeting with the head of the EEOC in Washington,
49:32
DC and my team and I met with them.
49:35
And it was in that meeting that led to a new round of mediation,
49:42
which eventually led to us coming to a mediated settlement
49:45
agreement where, you know, we were able to move on.
49:49
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49:51
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50:12
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today. Right.
50:44
But it's it's still costs you at the end of the day.
50:48
Millions. Yeah, billions.
50:50
And the preventative growth of meat heads and where you could
50:54
have invested that time and the energy and everything else on
50:57
there too. You incredible.
50:59
You have such an amazing team and backing from family and
51:03
support during this time, which is, is is a feat on its own.
51:09
And I tip my hat over to all those people that helped you
51:13
when you when you have this going on, was you, were you
51:17
still allowed to have all the operations still functioning
51:20
day-to-day? And was a lot of this for the
51:22
first couple years hush hush, like before it kind of went
51:26
public? And now Fox News, you were
51:28
coming in there where there are other people in the office.
51:30
Like, was there like, did everybody kind of everything was
51:32
just kind of grinding day by day?
51:34
And here's poor Aaron just trying to manage everything in
51:37
his head and, you know, with management and his brother and
51:40
everything at the time, like, was everything just kind of
51:43
functioning normal? Yeah, I, you know, I moved my
51:47
office to a different office across town, you know, near our
51:51
wine storage business, so they would hear the.
51:54
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And literally, I mean, and thank
51:59
goodness we have a chief operating officer who his name
52:02
is Zach Brannon. He was Zach.
52:05
Yeah. Shout out to Zach, man.
52:07
Shout out to Zach. And also Angela Deck Tire.
52:10
Who's Angela? Heck yeah.
52:12
Who's my right hand? And an amazing executive
52:14
assistant, Cassandra Webster and and and Zach and the team were
52:21
able to step in and provide true like he really owned it, you
52:27
know, leading operations and a lot of the advancements of the
52:31
company during that time. And that allowed me to focus,
52:36
you know, on, on putting this battle to rest.
52:40
Sure. The, you know, they always say
52:45
sometimes, you know, it's a bad move.
52:46
Like, you know, bad press is always, sometimes good press.
52:49
Yeah. Word comes out.
52:51
This is now in plain English. Shits hit the fan in a sense.
52:55
Yeah. This is all becoming big.
52:58
Were there were there members or like employees that are like,
53:01
and some of them were there like peace out, like I don't want to
53:03
be associated with meathead movers.
53:05
And on the other side, where there were there backlash that
53:08
you're getting from people like was there bad, bad feeds and
53:12
you're like all these one star reviews coming in?
53:14
Was there any of that happened on?
53:17
The Yeah, not the great question, not not on the
53:19
reviews. We, we did have a few, you know,
53:21
employees who felt nervous while working for a company that's
53:24
being sued by the federal government.
53:25
Understandably so. I know I had to talk to my sales
53:28
manager down in the Temecula branch off the ledge.
53:32
And we actually kind of bonded in that moment.
53:36
We did get, you know, some negative comments, you know, on
53:39
Reddit and, and, and some on the, you know, over 100 articles
53:44
that were published on it. But yeah, there's over 100
53:48
articles published on it. If you, if you Google meat head
53:51
movers, EEOC lawsuit. Just ridiculous.
53:54
But I got to say, I mean, 99 point something percent were all
54:00
overwhelmingly positive. Most people really saw this as
54:05
just a, you know, a prime example of of government
54:09
overreach and something that just didn't quite make sense
54:13
from both sides of the aisle. And it was reassuring to know
54:18
that, you know, we weren't crazy.
54:20
And eventually this issue had to get resolved because 300 people
54:27
losing their jobs for a company that moves hundreds of women out
54:32
of domestic violence situations every year for free, going out
54:35
of business. And that's and that's also going
54:38
around to talk to. It's like, here's a company
54:40
that's doing it just doesn't. Make sense?
54:41
How does Felicity? And on top of it, can you talk
54:45
about this and why you chose this organization?
54:48
Yeah. Yeah.
54:49
So it just didn't make it. So it didn't make any sense.
54:52
Just to finish up the last point, like I, I think it
54:55
actually helped us publicity more than anything because
54:59
honestly, I think people felt sorry for us, You know, I think
55:02
people felt like really bad for us.
55:04
A go fund me page was started and like, like people really
55:09
wanted to help us and people really, really cared.
55:11
I got countless letters and support.
55:14
You were like. The Robin Hood of GameStop, but
55:16
in the moving industry. A place I hope I'm never at
55:20
again. I I don't I don't wish it on
55:22
anyone. No.
55:23
If you sure yeah. If you guys get in the
55:25
crosshairs of a federal agency, I wish you luck.
55:30
Try to just do everything you possibly can to learn what you
55:34
need to learn and squash it and, and move and move past it.
55:37
And it's it's, it's just one of those kind of uncontrollable
55:41
things. Now your lawyer.
55:42
Said everything was really tight knit.
55:44
I mean, you know, you even said in the beginning, I mean for a
55:46
company that right in the start was like killing it with
55:49
playbooks and and SOP's and just having a really tight
55:53
operational structure. So I mean, when I'm really
55:56
hearing this and the way your company culture was and just how
55:59
your training was going and using the Army as a backing like
56:03
here, like everything that you you should be doing for your
56:08
company in order to avoid any kind of issues and then also
56:12
have massive growth. What did you find it like when
56:17
you're going through this whole process where there are changes
56:22
that you that you and that the lawyers, everybody says, well,
56:24
Aaron, OK, like we've kind of let this part slide for the last
56:29
so many years. We do need to change this or
56:31
implement this. That if somebody like you kind
56:34
of mentioned, if you ever have this situation going through it,
56:36
this is what you need to watch. What would you say to then
56:39
someone, Hey, make sure you do like you need to have these top
56:43
three or top five things in place in your company like today
56:47
to make sure that you guys are checking it over and reviewing
56:50
it. Yeah, I mean, look, we I like,
56:53
like I said, we were about we're, we're an above board
56:56
company like we never, what we've got accused of is
56:58
something that we never did. So I the, and I think the bigger
57:04
you get, the more recognizable you are, the more you are kind
57:08
of out there as the, the more of a target you become.
57:12
You know, and we're kind of at that interesting point where
57:15
it's like we're not too big, but we're, we're big enough for a
57:18
juicy settlement, but not too big where we have endless
57:21
resources like Tesla fight things off, you know, but I, I,
57:26
I think the more and just generally a business owner can
57:31
hire a consultants or have advisors come in and just say,
57:36
Hey, where are my weak spots? Where, how, where, what, what is
57:41
our Achilles heels? What, what claims could be made
57:46
against us? Because eventually if you're
57:49
especially the, the bigger you get, the more claims are going
57:53
to be made against you for obvious reasons.
57:57
And you need to try to be, as you know, just just as as as
58:00
bulletproof as, as possible. But like I said, you know, I
58:04
think so much about business is how you react to it.
58:07
And this is just one of those sort of situations that we
58:10
didn't plan on it, we didn't expect it.
58:12
We thought we were. And I believe that we were, I
58:15
don't want to say doing everything right because no
58:17
company is doing everything right, but we truly were doing
58:21
our were and are doing everything in a legal above
58:26
board way. Every single one of our
58:28
employees is W2. We never discriminate against
58:31
anyone. So it but even then, still like
58:36
things, things are are going to happen and how easy it is for an
58:41
employee and which wasn't the case in this, but how easy it is
58:44
for an employee to go to a plaintiff lawyer and just say,
58:49
you know, oh, I'm mad at my employer, sue them, you know,
58:52
and then the attorney goes in rotor roots everything and tries
58:55
to find some sort of angle and writes your real nasty letter
58:59
and you know, tries to make a point of you need to pay this
59:03
person money because you're exposed to here, here and here,
59:06
even though the owner is trying to do everything right.
59:08
It's it's tough man, for sure, for sure.
59:11
They. Always look at you going, oh,
59:13
you know, Aaron has this nice life in this and this and, you
59:16
know, I kind of got ripped off from that one hour that I never
59:19
clocked in before, but I wanna get paid for it.
59:22
Yeah, right here. Victims of domestic violence.
59:26
Yeah, you so. Heavily.
59:29
Advocate for this for meat head movers or what does that?
59:35
Why? Why this foundation?
59:38
Why help out here? How can others get involved and
59:42
how is it important to you and your cause?
59:44
Yeah. Thank you.
59:45
Great question. So early on when we first
59:49
started, I periodically get calls from women looking to flee
59:52
their abusive partners. And you know, because I picked
59:55
up the phone, almost every single phone call for the first,
59:57
you know, 2-3 years, I'd hear the story.
1:00:00
She's out of town. This is my opportunity.
1:00:03
They don't, I don't have any money, but I'll give you a
1:00:04
couch, we'll give you a TV. We just help Get Me Out.
1:00:07
And we would just go there and do it for free.
1:00:10
Every couple months we'd get another phone call and I'd be
1:00:13
like, man, this is bullshit. Like it's just insane having to
1:00:17
hope so many people in these in these situations and sounds.
1:00:21
This was a really nice area. It doesn't matter.
1:00:23
I mean, domestic violence is everywhere.
1:00:24
Like we have a very nice community and it it still like
1:00:28
very prevalent. And then one day the guy came
1:00:31
home. It got super contentious.
1:00:33
I remember, you know, he was yelling at us, accusing us of
1:00:37
stealing his things at toast Rev and got thrown.
1:00:40
The cops got cops got called and you know, fortunately nothing
1:00:44
happened but it I could see where it got super high risk.
1:00:48
So then I got some advice to go to the local women's shelter and
1:00:53
let them know what kind of moves we've been doing and to see if
1:00:56
the shelter would be willing to kind of partner with us where we
1:00:58
continue to offer these free moving services.
1:01:01
But under their guidance and under their process for safe
1:01:06
handling and intake of the people and making sure that
1:01:11
there's like a restraining order or police officer on site, you
1:01:14
know, so we can unfortunately do these needed moves, but do it in
1:01:19
a way that is safer for all involved.
1:01:23
So, so we, we just started doing the moves and it became a core
1:01:28
part as to like who we are and, and what we're all about.
1:01:31
And it became a reason that I think my employees really loved
1:01:36
our company. Umm and then we, when we opened
1:01:41
up our second office, we decided to continue to expand that into
1:01:45
that second office where it became the gift that we give to
1:01:49
the community. And what I love about it so much
1:01:52
is that it sends a really good message to our employees.
1:01:55
You know, a lot of which you are men that, hey, you know, being a
1:01:59
real man is being part of the solution, not the problem.
1:02:01
And, and, and it, I think draws people hear about it and it's in
1:02:09
our mission statement, which we make our employees memorize
1:02:12
that. It's a core part as to who we
1:02:16
are and what we're all about. It's the gift we give to each of
1:02:19
our communities. And we currently have 9 shelter
1:02:23
partners where we provide unlimited free moving services.
1:02:27
And then the stories got out there a little bit and there's a
1:02:30
lot of other moving companies that are doing things similar
1:02:33
since then, which I really applaud.
1:02:37
Um, and we have a nonprofit called Move to NDV where moving
1:02:42
companies can pledge that they're willing to do these
1:02:44
moves too. And it's really not that
1:02:46
complicated. We're happy to share a
1:02:47
memorandum of understanding with any moving company that reaches
1:02:50
out, you know, shout out to college hunks.
1:02:52
I know they're doing this too. Shout out.
1:02:55
Yeah. Shout out to shelter movers
1:02:57
actually in Canada who started, they said because of this.
1:03:01
Shout out. I mean, there's, I think there's
1:03:03
like 8 or 9. We work.
1:03:04
We. Work with shelter movers and and
1:03:06
Perfect. We've had them on the show as
1:03:08
well, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
1:03:11
So I mean, luckily it's just one of those things that like we
1:03:13
didn't concoct this. This wasn't like a, this wasn't
1:03:17
like a brainstorm in a boardroom.
1:03:18
This was just a problem that we saw and reacted to and has
1:03:23
brought so much purpose behind what we do.
1:03:28
And you know, it feels good to get the thank you letters.
1:03:31
It feels good to go to the shelters and get recognized and
1:03:36
get awards. And I was on the chair, I was on
1:03:39
the board for the National Coalition Against Domestic
1:03:42
Violence, which is a national organization for domestic
1:03:45
violence, you know, because of this sort of work.
1:03:48
And, and on top of that, it just is a, I was just at a nonprofit
1:03:52
event for the local San Luis Obispo women shelter this
1:03:54
weekend. And it, it's just a it's cool
1:03:58
knowing that like you look at our industry, Yeah, we're just,
1:04:01
we're movers. You hear about moving company.
1:04:03
OK, it's a moving company, big deal, but nada, we're in a
1:04:06
position to save freaking lives. And that's what we do.
1:04:09
That's what we do with these moves.
1:04:11
And we're in a position to like really add a lot of purpose to
1:04:18
any sort of tragedy. Like whenever there's the like
1:04:21
the Palisades fires or the fires in Northern California or or
1:04:26
giant flooding, we partner with the nonprofit.
1:04:28
We park our trucks in front of Costco's and Home Depots and
1:04:32
Targets and we fill up the supplies that those nonprofits
1:04:35
need and the community. We load up the items that are
1:04:38
being donated by people in the community and then we drive it
1:04:41
to the area need through these trusted partnerships.
1:04:44
And it's like, even though we're just a moving company, we are
1:04:47
directly getting items that people in need, need.
1:04:52
And that is just awesome. I love.
1:04:55
It I absolutely love it, Aaron. I really appreciate our time on
1:05:00
the show today. It's thank you.
1:05:02
It's been great. I really thank you so much for
1:05:04
sharing. You know, some difficult
1:05:08
situations that you've had into, but also just the enlightening
1:05:11
everybody about how they can help out as well too on the
1:05:14
canvas side and the US side, especially with a situation that
1:05:18
happens daily that people don't like talking about, but it
1:05:23
movers. I feel like get caught in those
1:05:25
crosshairs more and more than people may think before I do.
1:05:28
And I do have a box of truth. It's two questions I hit you up
1:05:33
with and you have 60 seconds to answer.
1:05:37
So just give me one second here. You ready?
1:05:42
Yes. OK.
1:05:43
When you look at everything you've built, what's the one
1:05:46
risk you took that you wouldn't take the same way again?
1:05:57
Blindly, personally guaranteeing all the debt.
1:06:03
OK. I feel like we're we're very
1:06:07
similar in that very quickly. You, you gotta learn.
1:06:12
You gotta, you only learn that the hard way, Mark.
1:06:14
No, no. I know if someone built a brand
1:06:18
as strong as yours but didn't protect it properly, what's the
1:06:21
worst case scenario they should be prepared for?
1:06:25
Attorneys fees. Attorney fees.
1:06:27
Yeah. I believe.
1:06:28
I mean, that's it, yeah. We're gonna we're we're wrapping
1:06:32
this up with our wrap up and brought to you by, of course,
1:06:36
readyrolls.com. If you haven't gotten a VA, you
1:06:39
can't get big like Aaron and his brand without VA.
1:06:42
And Aaron's gonna be like, I don't even have any VA probably,
1:06:44
But hopefully he does. Maybe he doesn't.
1:06:46
And if he doesn't, he should go to readyrolls.com to go find
1:06:50
your VA today. This episode was just a big
1:06:53
reminder, right? Building a brand is one thing,
1:06:55
protecting it is completely a different game.
1:06:58
And so no know how like there's so many that we talked to that
1:07:05
just want to build, build, build, build and expand, expand,
1:07:07
expand. And if you took anything from
1:07:09
today's episode, it's really about making sure that you have
1:07:13
everything dialed in, everything between place and consistently
1:07:17
work on your business and not in your business when you can.
1:07:20
And if you can find those right people in your team to take on
1:07:25
when situations arise and you can and those leaders rise up,
1:07:30
reward them and treat them good and don't let them go.
1:07:36
The stronger brand becomes becomes, the more responsibility
1:07:38
it carries. Is is is is my quote from Aaron
1:07:41
today. And it's something that should
1:07:43
be not just held lightly on there.
1:07:46
Aaron, I really appreciate your time.
1:07:48
Thank you so much for finally. Having the.
1:07:50
Time to come sit down with us. I know it's going to be an
1:07:53
explosive episode. It was so great and for all
1:07:57
those that are watching listening, if you liked what you
1:07:59
heard, if you have comments share it in your comments.
1:08:01
I'd love to hear. I know Aaron with two what you
1:08:04
thought about this. Maybe you've been back in a
1:08:06
situation like this or, or maybe you want to help out.
1:08:09
We'll make sure Aaron's, if Cassie can send me the link so
1:08:14
that we have a couple of those links we can put in the
1:08:16
description for the violence victims of domestic violence
1:08:21
and, and the foundation that you have so other movers can sign up
1:08:24
for it and kind of go from there.
1:08:27
And then also, if you need to, you can we'll have his Aaron's
1:08:31
contact as well too on LinkedIn. Want to touch base with them.
1:08:34
And yeah, stay, move, fight. Everybody appreciate you all.
1:08:39
Thank you so much and and have a great day.