He Hit $300 Million Hauling Junk. Here's What He Learned About Entrepreneurship | Nick Friedman

But if it's like three months or three years, that's a desert now. It's a different climate. That doesn't mean we're gonna wait for it to rain. Create a sense of urgency without creating like a sense of frenzy or panic. Does Nick want me to drop everything I'm doing and go do this right now?

Is this just for my information? The skill is getting better at judgment, taste, and discernment. How you get to those things is far less important today. All right, my friends, quick favor before we get into the episode. I love doing this podcast, and if you're getting something out of it, hit subscribe or follow wherever you listen.

On YouTube, give us a like, leave a comment, ask a question, share a story or experience, or explain why we're getting something wrong. I love hearing from you guys, and it helps us reach new people, and it just means a ton to me and the team. This is the way. In a crude laboratory in the basement of his home. Nick, dude, I appreciate you taking the time, uh, to come on today, man.

I'm excited to chat with you. Yeah, appreciate you having me. Thank you. Yeah, so like junk and trash aren't necessarily like industries that I think every little boy grows up like wanting to work in, yet you've made an incredible career and had tremendous success in these places. Um, I think it would be a really good just, just a, just a high-level pieces, like catch people up on your career and kind of where you're at, so then we can kinda dig into some of the really fun parts.

Yeah, so, uh, uh, like you said, v- very few kids, if not any, would grow up saying, "Hey, I wanna own a junk business," or, "I wanna own a moving company or a trash company when I grow up." Uh, and I was certainly, uh, not one of those kids either. Um, brought up to follow the more traditional career path. You work hard in school, you get in college, you get a degree, you get a job. And the summer before our senior year of college, we were home for summer break, my best friend and I from high school, his mom had a beat-up cargo van from her furniture store, and she saw that we were just sorta, you know, hanging around, not doing anything productive, and said, "Why don't you guys borrow this van?

You can move people's furniture. You can haul people's junk." And then she kind of jokingly said, "You guys could be college hunks who haul junk." And we just sorta laughed about it at first, and then we said, "Well, that's not really what people associate with hauling or moving." And so we put it on flyers, realized very quickly people had a na- need for the service.

They thought the name was catchy. Most college kids would go get something in the real world after graduation, uh, and just kinda chalk that up as something they did in, in college for the summer. And so we got regular jobs briefly and then decided, you know what? You know, let's see how far we can take that brand and that business idea. And so I call it a 20-year overnight success.

Today, we have, uh, roughly 200 franchise locations around the country. We'll do close to 300 million in annual sales this year. We've launched another business, uh, called Butler Plus that, uh, does doorstep trash for apartment complexes. So it's been a, a fun, long journey from that very humble beat-up cargo van to where we are today and, uh, a lot of lessons and learnings along the way. We were on episode one of Shark Tank and had some other fun on Undercover Boss, but it's, uh, it's, it's been a rewarding, uh, experience and one that I would say I was never and still am not passionate about junk or moving.

But I am passionate about building a brand, providing a service that people benefit from, creating a platform where our franchise owners and our employees can develop and, and grow and have fulfillment themselves, and I think that's what excites me and keeps me getting up out of bed, you know, here 20 years later. You said that you picked up on pretty quickly that people like attached to the brand, that the brand- Mm-hmm ... kinda spoke to them and that there was a need. Like what were those signals? How did you know that there was something there? So there was either an immediate reaction or an immediate question, even if the question was kind of silly or, you know, eventually annoying 'cause people still ask the same questions to this day.

You know, like, "Hey, are they all really in college?" Or, "Hey, are they all really hunks?" Or, "Hey, do you take your shirts off to move furniture 'cause they're called The Hunks?" And, um, you know, or, "Do you move col- only college students?" Like those are the type of questions we would get, but w- what I realized was it showed that it caused some curiosity, and, and we call it a pattern interrupt.

And it wasn't until I read a book by Seth Godin called The Purple Cow that I realized what we had done is we'd sort of come up with a name that stood out. We had bright orange and green colors that stood out. And when we made an intentional focus on the customer experience that separated ourselves from the typical mover or junk hauler, uh, that stood out as well. And in The Purple Cow book, it's, the, the concept is if you're driving down, you know, a country road and you see a field of brown cows, you've seen it before, you're gonna keep driving. But if there's a purple cow sitting there, you're gonna talk about it.

You're gonna put it on social media. And so I think because it wasn't what people typically associated with movers or haulers, you know, College Hunks Who Haul Junk or College Hunks Hauling Junk is, is what we ultimately called it. And because it, uh, rhymed and had some alliteration, it just, you know, it caused people to like remember it or ask questions about it and, uh, and it allowed us to tell the story of, of how we started, what we actually do. It's not just, you know, campuses, but it's homeowners and businesses that we service. And so it, it allowed it to create, I think, a level of interest and engagement, you know, kind of before the interest economy even existed.

People were kind of intrigued by what, what was this all about. We even got a call from The Washington Post, uh, news reporter when we first started 'cause she had seen one of our little bandit signs that we put out, uh, to advertise, and she was like, "You know, that's a funny name. Tell me more about that story." And she did kind of a human interest article about us, and, you know, back in those days, people would still read the paper and print out the artic- or cut out the articles and if they thought something was interesting, and we had people calling us from that. So th- that was just the early signals that, you know, the name in itself, the brand, the, the colors, they were all sort of lightning in a bottle.

W- It's been somewhat of an uphill battle over those 20 years to still overcome some of the like misperceptions that people might have, but the way I look at it is it still gives us an opportunity to tell our story and, and define what the brand represents.How important do you think that pattern interrupt idea is? And I ask that- Yeah ... to give you context because my home industry is the insurance industry, which is- Right ... another industry in the bucket of things, uh, no little boy or girl grows up hoping to become. Um- Although there's a lot of money in it when you actually, uh- There's a lot of money in it, that's for sure. Uh, I have no complaints that I found myself there, but certainly wasn't my dream. And you said something that I thought was really interesting and, um, w- we'll circle back to my question in a second.

But you said, you said, "I don't know that I'm passionate about junk or trash, but I love operating a business." And I feel the same way about insurance. There are people who are passionate about the topic, right? So there could be people who are passionate about packing and hauling and, you know, maybe like the game of Tetris you have to play in the back of the truck really interests them- ... or something, whatever, right? Like, like you get, they get really into the, the nitty-gritty details of the thing.

And I guess to a certain extent you need to be good at the thing to run a business, but so many people get stuck at skill or expertise in the thing versus taking the step to running a business. Was that, was there a moment where you had to decide like, "I can't just focus on-" Yeah ... "hauling junk. I have to think about this as a business owner"? And how did you know that you needed to make that leap?

Yeah. So I'm laughing because there's this one very vivid moment. We went in, we bought a 1-800 number to make ourselves look bigger, uh, even though we only had one truck, and we put the 800 number on the back of their truck. It was still routed to our cell phone. And at the time we were still doing all the work in the business, driving the truck, answering the phone, hauling the junk.

And people would call the 800 number to complain about erratic driving. I'd be in the driver's seat answering the phone you know, apologizing, say, "Oh yeah, we don't condone that type of driving in our company. We'll fire those guys when they get back to the office." Probably fired ourselves three or four times that first summer. And i- so what I realized is we were starting to burn out a little bit by doing, you know, all of the work ourselves.

And when we s- first started the business, what excited me and what enth- you know, kinda got my energy going was trying to build something from nothing. You know, trying to build a brand, m- generate the phone call, uh, generate the business, provide the service, and then, you know, turn that into more business. And so one of our me- mentors recommended, uh, another book. Uh, obviously you can tell, we got, we didn't really become passionate about learning until we had a business where we could actually attach and, and apply the learning into something tangible. Uh, but the, this other book was called The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber, kind of a classic must-read for any startup entrepreneur, I believe.

And it was really, it felt like it was written about us even though it was written about, uh, a woman with a bakery or a bake shop, 'cause it was really talking about how, you know, the mistake entrepreneurs make by just getting stuck in the day-to-day of the, you know, actual technical side of the business versus learning how to work on the business, uh, i- instead of in it, is what, what he refers to. And so the next, when we read that it was like the next light bulb moment for us, is like wow, if we're ever gonna have another truck, let alone multiple locations, which was sort of our ambition, we've gotta start documenting how we do everything. You know, let's make checklists about how we wear the uniform, how we greet the clients, how we answer the, the silly questions that people ask about the brand, how we overcome pricing objections. And, uh, that I think allowed us to then eventually hire people, eventually franchise the business, and, um, you know, allow me to keep my sort of creative energy, uh, maintained through that growth phase, uh, and some of the grind phases, uh, of, you know, the stuff s- the work still has to get done. In some cases I was the one that still had to drive the truck or lift the other end of the furniture.

But we were sort of building something bigger, and I think that was the exciting, fun part, was trying to, uh, see the vision and then leverage the systems and the, the, you know, processes that we were developing and then the people that we ultimately brought in to help build it even, even larger and, and then, you know. I'm, I'm big on potential maximization, so how great of a business can we create? How great of a leader can I become? How big of a platform can we, uh, develop for others to, to be a part of it? You know, I've heard it said and, and I agree, you know, you build a, a, a dream so big that other people's dreams fit within it, and that really spoke to me when I thought about that concept of, you know, how do we have such a large vision that other people's visions can, you know, be within that?

And that's where we decided ultimately to franchise the brand, uh, for other people to have, you know, business ownership and create a building leaders, uh, core value where we could train and empower our frontline to, uh, you know, to, to learn skills that would carry them through their career. So, uh, that, that was the stuff that I think I would say energized me as an entrepreneur. To your point, it was, it could've been anything. It could've been insurance. It could've been, you know, roofing.

It could've been, you know, sandwich making. It just so happened to be for us it was junk removal and moving because we had a funny name and, and a cargo van, and then we ultimately a- applied more, uh, of an intentional approach to building something within that framework. If commission reconciliations, accounting, taxes, and payroll are chewing up time and brain cycles you should be using to grow your agency, I want you to check out PFS Global. PFS has particular expertise working with property, casualty, insurance agencies. They understand the back office work that comes with running an agency.

Hand PFS the accounting, tax, and payroll work and you won't be sorry. And I know this because at Row Risk PFS handled our accounting and tax work. I saw their service up close, and I can vouch for it firsthand, and personally got more than 25 hours back in my month when I outsourced accounting. Go to pfs.ryanhanley.com or click on the link in this episode's description, whether you're on YouTube or listening to the podcast, and learn more about how PFS can get your tax, accounting, and payroll work out of your brain so you can get back to growing your business. Did you ever have a moment where you questioned the growth?

Like you were like, "Man, maybe just like three trucks is enough." Like did you hit like a plateau or a, or a moment where you really started to question that bigger vision? Or was it always- Yeah ... just full tilt, you know- At all costs I'll say yes and yes. Uh, every other day w- we probably and still to this day sometimes question what the heck we're doing. Uh, I- I've heard it said that, you know, any day or any hour an entrepreneur is either having a breakthrough or a breakdown, and, uh, I could, I can definitely attest to that.

So we, m- multiple times we've probably had those second-guessing moments, but o- one in particular that I can remember, one time in the evolution of our business is we had just sort of established our franchise offering. We'd spent more money than, you know, we could probably afford to hire some franchise attorneys and consultants to develop our materials to be able to sell and support franchises. We moved our headquarters down to Tampa, Florida, and opened up a call center, and we started selling franchises. And now this was in 2008, 2009, so if you were gonna pick a time in our economic cycles to franchise a home service business that was r- dependable on, you know, on dependent on, uh, disposable income of homeowners, you know, that timeframe right at the housing crisis, uh, you know, falling out point was probably not the ideal time. Uh, people were worried about, you know, getting foreclosed on, let a- you know, not paying to get their junk hauled away or paying to move to a new home.

And so, uh, I... what that did was it was such a anchor through the sand experience that it kind of gave us a m- a, a moment of like, "Are we just gonna toss in the towel and, and go do something else, or are we gonna just kinda keep weathering the storm and grinding through it, and hopefully, you know, the wind will, will turn, and we'll have that breakthrough?" And I think because we were younger, you know, at the time, no kids, no, no, no marriage, no mortgage, um, we were able to just sort of power through it, and I think it really exercised all the kind of intangible entrepreneurship muscles that you hear as being, you know, critical to, to success. Grit, resilience, resourcefulness, persistence, you know, patience, you know, all of those things that, uh, you sort of hear as, like, critical to, you know, growth. I- we sort of had to learn that through experience and I think to develop that muscle through experience, and, uh, and we made it to the other side. And we've had other moments where we have those deer in the headlight moments, say, you know, "This is, this is too much.

We're not gonna make it." Whether it's, you know, during COVID when we thought everything was gonna disappear or, uh, you know, w- we have a, a franchise situation or employee situation pops up and we're like, "Man, this is, this is tough." But I think, um, you know, each time we've reached new levels of success, even if we hit plateaus of growth, we're always thinking about, okay, you know, what is it gonna take to break to the next level? And, um, I think we were talking before we started recording, the, you know, the book, uh, Science of Scaling by Dr. Ben Hardy is one that we've read recently, and it sort of ignited a new energy in, in me as well because it's thinking about, okay, kinda like when we bought the 800 number to look bigger when we first started.

Now if we're a $300 million business, what do we have to start operating as today to become a billion-dollar business? And, uh, looking at it as, as, uh, an aspirational growth opportunity as opposed to, like, this, uh, scarcity, always chasing something that's out of reach is, is I think what also kinda keeps you excited and, and keeps you motivated. It's a lot, uh, it's a lot easier to put myself in that mindset now when we're actually making real money and the business has, you know, achieved a, a pretty massive milestones. Whereas, like, in the early days, we were just trying to, you know, rub the pennies together and, and hope it, you know, turned into something meaningful and, and, uh, sustainable. I think that's...

Y- y- you just made a, a really interesting point, and I, I'd love for you to dive deeper in it, and it was... You just mentioned that you were acting as the business that you wanted to be, and having interviewed thousands of entrepreneurs and, and thought leaders and success high achievers on this show, that seems to be a recurring theme to me. That whether conscious or unconscious, um, people who perform at a high level seem to always be willing to, uh, try-- They, they don't get caught in that mode of like, "Well, I didn't come from a family with money," or, "I don't have, you know, Harvard MBA connections," or insert excuse or reason- Right ... why I can't be that bigger thing. And the people that do kind of like almost, I don't wanna call it naively 'cause I know that's not what it is, but like almost unabashedly are like- Yeah ... "I might not be that thing today, but we're gonna act like we are-" Mm-hmm ...

"until we get there." And is that, was that native to you? Was that a conscious decision? Yeah. Or is that something kinda looking back on you can say, you know, this is how the pieces fit together?

Yeah. Well, man, you hit it on the head so clearly of, of it's both probably somewhat of a naive just like we were doing it somewhat instinctually out of pure ambition and some, you know, some might call it shamelessly, shamelessly, others might call it intentionally. There's probably a fine line between the two. Uh, you know, you've heard it said, "Dress for the job you want, not the job that you have," or, "Fake it till you make it" is another kind of cliché that people will say. There were definitely times where we made the brand look and feel much bigger than it actually was, and people thought the brand was bigger than it actually was.

You know, from the very first truck, we used to park it in different locations to, you know, create some visibility, and I would bump into people I knew, and they'd be like, "Man, I see your trucks everywhere. What do you have? Nine, 10 trucks?" And we only had one truck. Or, you know, when we went on Shark Tank, uh, it-- we, we were kind of positioning ourselves as a national brand opportunity.

People knew about us in other count- you know, in other cities, even though in other states, even though we only had, you know, three or four locations at the time. And so for the longest time, there probably was that insecurity in the back of my mind of, you know, people call it imposter syndrome, where, you know, you feel like you walk into a room and, you know, people are kinda like sizing you up and you're seeing how successful other people are. I w- I was, you know, comparing ourselves and knowing what was really in our bank account and assuming what I thought I knew what was in other peoples', you know, gave that level of insecurity. But I think You know, surrounding myself with a peer group. I joined the Entrepreneurs Organization, I joined YPO once we qualified, Young Presidents Organization.

You know, being surrounded by other people that were sort of like walking through it or have been-- had been through it was, uh, enough that I needed to give me the confidence that we were sort of, you know, on the right path and doing the right thing. And to your point, it's a pattern that you do see with a lot of successful people where they will, you know, embody, whether it's from a leadership approach, from a mindset approach, from a, you know, hiring approach, what they're wanting to grow into as opposed to operating where they, uh, from the perspective of where they came from or even where they are in the present. Um, because, uh, I, you know, I don't know if it's like you said, psychological or naive or intentional. It's probably a combination of all the above. Uh, but if there's an aspiration to grow individually or collectively as a brand, then you've got to sort of set the, the, the peg out into the future of what it is you're trying to grow into and then start functioning and operating, uh, from that framework in present day.

I was talking to, um, a group of business owners the other day, and we were discussing this idea of like the, the perfect scenario. And the way it came up was, uh, one of the, the gentlemen at the, the meeting, uh, owned an insurance agency. And, you know, he kept saying, you know, he was-- he kept inferring that when this situation or this market or this trigger happened, well, then we're going to, you know, put the pedal down and move forward. And I could see like, you know, as I was kind of facilitating this conversation, I could kind of see some of the other, um, members of the group were kinda-- I could tell they had something on their mind, right? So I was like, "Well, w-what-- how do we feel about this?"

Right? And a fairly blunt gentleman, you know, kinda leaned forward in his chair and goes, "There's never gonna be a, you know, scenario that's perfect, dude. Like, just get after it," right? It was like this kind of this very real moment. And what was wild to me was watching the, the initial gentleman's like... w-when he got hit with that kinda like sack of shit right in the face, right?

It was like exactly what he needed to hear but didn't wanna hear at the same time. Yeah. You could see this like-- it almost like it, it, it, it melted away that excuse of like- Yeah ... well, the market just, you know, the, the-- So in the insurance market, there's hard markets and soft markets, and it's like pricing goes up, pricing goes down. A lot of it has to do with inflation and economic things. It's not really the carriers f- you know, the carriers don't really determine that.

And the idea is like when the market is soft, everything's very cheap. It's very hard to grow as much as that sounds weird because everyone has cheap prices. So he was basically- Mm ... inferring that like when the market started to turn hard, that was when he was gonna initiate this whole marketing campaign and hire producers. And like I started thinking like, man, there really is, and, and again, cliché, but this abundance versus scarcity mentality. It's like when you believe that really the world is infinite and you're kind of playing this, you know, Simon Sinek wrote, you know, infinite game- Yeah ... kind of idea where, you know, there's just always more opportunity if you present yourself.

It's kinda like serendipity takes care of you, um, but it's very emotionally hard to regulate that. Like h-how do you handle that? You know, look, we need more trucks. Maybe that market doesn't yet facilitate more trucks, but we know we're gonna need them. We're gonna go.

Like, we're just- Yeah ... we believe we can fill the capac- Like, how do you emotionally handle that decision? Because that is definitely something that many entrepreneurs, many business owners get caught up on is like waiting for the right moment. Yeah. Yeah, there's a, definitely a fine line between bold and reckless, uh, when it comes to entrepreneurship. And I think that, um, one of the things that you said stuck out, stuck out to me m-more recently because, you know, right now it's high mortgage rates in our industry, which impacts the housing market, which impacts moving and junk removal.

If people aren't in, in transition as much, then we don't get as many calls. And I remember th-that happened, you know, four years ago, and I remember sitting in my office and hearing some of the folks on our leadership team being like, "Well, when the mortgage rates come back down, we'll get the, the tailwinds again." And I, you know, I, I said to them similar to what you just said, I said, like, "Look, if it's like three weeks with no rain, you might say, 'Hey, that's a drought. We're gonna wait for it to rain again.' But if it's like three months or three years, that's a desert now.

It's a different climate. That doesn't mean we're gonna wait for it to rain. That means we're gonna figure out how to thrive in this climate." And that's the mindset that we have to have. And um, I think I, I also tried to ban the word limitations and constraints from my team's vocabulary.

There was nothing that felt more like n-nails on a chalkboard when I would get on a Zoom call to get an update on an idea or an opportunity and like, "Well, we were-- we had some limitations here, and here were the constraints." It's like, guys, I understand there's always gonna be limitations and constraints. There's always gonna be obstacles to getting this done, but we need that sort of like get shit done mindset if we're going to win. And um, you know, the other thing is like if you think about it in like a football game, if it's bright and sunny out, both teams are playing in the bright and sun-sunny weather. If it's snowing, both teams are playing in the snow.

And so you might have to adjust your game plan slightly. Maybe when if it's like really heavy snow, you're not throwing Hail Marys. You might be, you know, running more ball control and, and, and, you know, running it up the middle and trying to make sure that your, your defense is strong. And so I think that's the way I've kind of approached it from a business perspective is like there's never a perfect climate. Of course, if it's raining, you gotta put out the buckets, uh, you know, and, and make sure you have the labor to support it.

But if, you know, if the leads are not as abundant as they us-used to be, then that's an opportunity in my opinion to, to gain market share and to build the brand more aggressively and to, you know, get your name out there more, more, uh, effectively. And you just gotta be a little bit more, um, gritty to do it. So that's kinda been my experience and, and, you know, I think that also kinda struck a nerve as you were describing it 'cause it-- I could definitely relate and resonate with that.You can work hard and still spend your life doing the wrong work. My new book, Easy Mode, is about finding your edge, building your life around it, and cutting everything else out. For leaders, it also shows you how to design roles so your people create more value by spending more time in their easy mode.

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It is a free assessment to find your edge. Go there today. Yeah. I, I, I like the, um, concept that Bruce Lee shared, you know, back when he, he was interviewed. I think it was the '80s.

Um, you know, the be like water interview. Yeah. And, you know, I know he's-- he was talking more about, uh, personal development and personal success when he shared that concept, but I think it works in business too. It's like, you know, f-f-fill the vessel in front of you. Like, you know what I mean?

Yeah. You don't assume you don't get to choose what the vessel is or, you know, and this would be the market or the conditions or what's happening, and just, you know, your job is to morph to the situation, not to, you know, scream into the wind at, at- ... you know, at why the situation isn't ideal. Um, you know, uh, uh, Naval Ravikant has this, uh, mental reframe that I really love, which is, um, anytime he approaches, uh, a problem, uh, he takes their 10-year goal and he says- Mm ... "What if we had to get it done in six months? Like, what, what would we do?"

Like what, like there's n- as if let's assume we have infinite money, infinite people, infinite time, infinite resources. If we had to hit our 10-year goal in six months, what would we do? As just a way of, like, expanding your brain to say, like, the... And then you, what you, and then his point is what you start to realize is those things that you thought would take 10 years, a lot of them just are either not necessary or don't take that much time. Yeah.

And we can actually move a lot faster 'cause we put these, like, artificial constraints on ourselves. And as, as someone who's, who's running, you know, uh, has run a, a growing organization and, and still is, how do you sidestep culturally... You said you, you, you, you, you, you try to ban those words, but, like, when that type of thinking enters, which inevitably will, right? Yeah. I mean, it's just human nature.

How do you get past that as a leader? How do you culturally move your team past, uh, uh, limiting ideas or, or limited thinking? Yeah. Um, I mean, I, as the founder, I think one of my roles is to, you know, create a sense of urgency without creating, like, a sense of frenzy or panic. Mm.

So, you know, to, to, to create this sense of, um, like, we wanna get things done faster. Let's think of a, a way that we can, uh, you know, l- narrow our focus and, and drive that energy forward. And the analogy I've used with my team m-many occasions is, you know, "Guys, if, we can't just be thinking incrementally. We gotta think exponentially," and I, like, "We can't just be rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic thinking that we're, you know, being productive and we're getting stuff done. Uh, we've gotta be, like, really mindful of, you know, where we're heading and, and what are the activities that are actually gonna drive those results.

What are we measuring? What, what are we impacting?" So I think it, I think it is cultural. I think it's, you know, especially as we've gotten larger and we've got layers of complexity with franchise owners that bureaucracy can creep in, like the speed at which a smaller independent moving company can implement a new marketing initiative or a new, uh, you know, software program is much faster in today's day and age with AI and, and everything else than it ever was before. Whereas if we're going to try to make some changes, you know, with our franchise layer, there's gotta be some communication with, you know, adoption into, you know, and implementation and so forth.

And so I think it's, it's culturally stressing the, um, the importance that, that speed can win, you know, without being reckless. That was, John Wooden, what did he say? Like, "Be quack, be quick, but don't hurry." Um, so, like, we don't wanna be in a rush to where we're like, you know, just knocking things over and making a mess, but we need to be, you know, expedient on how we're taking things to execute and how we're getting things done. And, uh, you know, probably no area where that shows itself more than technology and marketing because it's all interconnected, and the speed at which things can be rolled out is much more accessible and faster for the smaller providers right now than folks like us, whereas that used to be our advantage is we had scale and money and, you know, sophistication that we could, you know, move things quicker and, and, you know, 'cause we could spend the money to build it than some of the little guys might.

And so I think the playing field gets leveled a little bit more now in today's day and age, which means that w- you know, the stakes get risen for a group like us to not get passed by, uh, some of these more nimble, you know, smaller competitors. So as a larger player in the market, how do you, how do you not chase shiny objects, um, uh, to the detriment of your organization- Yeah ... when maybe you get a call from a franchisee who's like, "This other smaller two-truck shop in my area is kicking ass because they have this new tech," you know, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Like, I could see, I could see panic being pushed up to you, and this new tool and this new process and, like, how do you sort that as a, as an enterprise- Yeah ... at scale versus, you know, a smaller organization which could throw 10 tests out, have eight of them fail, and have it not be a big deal because, you know, they can kinda see everything and move on a dime? Yeah.

Um, we're, we're living it right now, and I think it's, it's, it's kind of being intentional about- What's a, you know, quick win versus what's gonna require, you know, testing. Jim Collins called it, you know, shooting bullets before cannons. So, you know, we're not gonna... Like, what, can, how quickly, because we have eight corporate locations as well as our franchises, how quickly can we test and prove an idea in some of our corporate operations before we try to roll it out to the system so that we're not doing these, like, massive overhauls of, you know, the franchise system and, and, and so forth? And so we're actually in the process.

We're just now rolling out a, a tech and AI subcommittee of franchise owners and team members, uh, which is including talking to some of those independent, uh, moving companies. We're involved in some of those associations, as well as, uh, software providers and marketing providers to say, you know, how quickly can we test things and iterate things to make sure that we are moving at the speed of everyone else, if not, you know, faster. And so at any given time, we've got multiple tests going on. Uh, but just to your point, it can't be a thousand things in a thousand different directions. And as a visionary, I come up with a lot of ideas and sometimes can overwhelm the team when I'm bringing it to them.

We have a good filtering system with our executive layer where, you know, we're meeting weekly. We're kind of walking through the ideas. What's already on the docket as far as, like, a priority for the r- month or for the quarter that they're working on. Uh, a- any some of these new ideas, are they, d- you know, do they need to jump ahead of some of the initiatives that we already have, or are we gonna kind of let them sit on the shelf and not do anything about them? Or are we gonna kind of test them when the opportunity presents itself to, you know, add bandwidth?

And a lot of it is, like, who is doing the testing, not necessarily how. Um, you know, we're doing a, a I guess we've been quoting Ben Hardy on a lot of his books today with the S- Science of Scaling and, and who not how. But, um, but yeah, like, if we have an initiative or an idea, uh, whose lap does that fall in, and does that individual have the, the cross-functional bandwidth to be able to, to be able to execute it? And I think it's, um, also a fine line between, you know, innovation and shiny object syndrome for any entrepreneur. Uh, you gotta always be thinking about new ways of doing things and new ways of testing things, but you also have that core, uh, uh, that is, is critical to the foundation of the business.

And so, um, you know, for us, you know, we've got our flywheel. We've got our focus on, you know, lead conversion, uh, execution, and, and then repeat referral. Uh, but then there's ways that we can kind of think about optimizing each one of those layers of our value chain, uh, through AI, through m- marketing initiatives, through, you know, training, and, uh, and so forth. So you just brought up the idea of being a visionary, and I know one place that founders can struggle is it-- when they make that first initial leap from being a founder working in the business to being a founder working on the business, they have more time for visionary-type activities, right? You're reading more, listening to more, you know, checking out more tech, you know, talking to more people, and you have all these ideas streaming to your head.

What is the... Y- y- you know, f- you, you, you talk a little bit about a, a, a filter, but, like, how does that filter work where you're able to deliver these ideas to your team without them... Like, how do you get the feedback from your team to know which ones of your ideas- Yeah ... is an idea that's good and worth implementing or that you can implement or makes sense? Um, 'cause I've gotten feedback from other entrepreneurs that they're like, "Man, I, I might come up with 10 ideas, and they just tell me all of them are good. And now I, you know, I don't know which ones to go, and I'm ma-" Yeah.

Like, how do you-- Do you have a mechanism, a feedback, a committee, a s- an individual person or a process that allows you to work through all the ideas that may come to you and which ones you actually present and try to push on, and which ones maybe are just ideas that sit in a notebook? Yes. Uh, so yeah, and Jeff Bezos went through this himself. I mean, he went to his team, and, you know, h- his team said to him, "You know, Jeff, you're gonna bankrupt the company if we try to pursue all of your ideas. They're all good, but we can't do them all at once."

So, you know, whiteboard it, write them all out, and let's collectively prioritize which ones are, you know, high impact, relatively easy to implement, which ones are high impact, are gonna take more resources to implement, and which ones are low impact. And the low impact, high resources, you gotta cross off the list. Low impact, uh, low resources is kind of like why would we bother anyway? And so focus on the high impact, high value activities. To your point, a case from a visionary could probably be made that they're all high impact, and they're all worth pursuing.

And so when we first started the business before we had more discipline, uh, you know, I'd come back from a conference, or I'd come back from, you know, a, a, a seminar. I'd have all these ideas. I'd be, you know, texting my team members. I'd be putting, like, you know, notes in front of them. And it was, you know, disorientating to say the least.

It probably felt like, you know, d- do that, does Nick want me to drop everything I'm doing and go do this right now? Is this just for my information? And I'm still guilty of it today, uh, but I try to be more mindful of, like, how these ideas are received if I'm just, like, sending them directly to a subject matter in, expert in the organization. So we created a filter about three or four years ago. Um, we hired a, promoted a gentleman to, to brand president.

Um, we use the term integrator, which is, those who are not familiar, it's based on this book, Rocket Fuel, uh, by Gino Wickman, where it's kind of following the entrepreneurial operating system, uh, model. And so we do a weekly same-page meeting with him where we'll bring all of our ideas to that meeting, put them in a spreadsheet. Uh, some of them are literally just, just like therapy, me getting them out of my head and seeing them on the spreadsheet, even though, like, the integrator is telling me, like, "Hey, we're not gonna be doing this right now. It's just like we're leaving it on the shelf." But, like, you've taken it out of the, you know, storage closet of your head, and you're putting it here on the spreadsheet.

We can revisit it at some time in the future. I go back to that list and look sometimes like, man, that would've been a really good one to pursue if we had done that 10 years ago. Eventually, you can't do them all, so you gotta just pick the, the, the most impactful few and trust that the team is gonna execute on them. Um, not easy to do. Uh, easier said than done, but I think that's, it's, it's critical to have those compound results over time.

Yeah, I love that idea of a same-page meeting. I think that's really important. I also think something you said that I Completely agree with and I think is really important for guys, if you're listening at home and you're the kind of person who has a million ideas flooding your brain like Nick, like myself, um, like just getting them out of your head, even if you don't ever tell anybody. Yeah. Just, like, get them either on paper, into a spreadsheet.

And it's funny you're saying that, and I, like, I actually created... So I, I love Grok Bot. Yeah. For whatever... You know, everyone's got a favorite AI.

Grok Bot, I have absolutely fallen in love with. If I could create a B- Grok Bot team for every, like, major vertical in my life, like personal- Yeah ... different business, podcasts, you know, different things that I do, um, I would. Um, 'cause I just think it's that powerful. So long story short, um, for my main Grok Bot installation, I actually created a bot that's just my ideas, that literally is just... And it, it kind of...

I, I created it to be, like, kind of an asshole. Yeah. Like, I'm like, "Y- you, like, force me to explain to you why this is, like, something I should do." Yeah. So, so it just captures the ideas, right?

And then what it'll do is kind of go research the idea, and then come back and be like, "This idea's insane." Yeah. "This idea takes $10 million. This idea..." You know, but be like, "Explain this one to me," right?

Like, maybe this is something we wanna do. And it, like, it, I force it to be a skeptic. Yeah. I kind of gave it the skeptic personality as a way... No one sees it but me, right?

Yeah. But it's just for, like me, forces me to not do that thing that so many, like, kind of entrepreneur visionaries will do, which is like, "That seems awesome." Yeah. "I wanna do that thing. Let's go do it."

And, and then all of a sudden, you know, you get five days in and you're like, "Why? Wait, I f- why am I doing this again?" Yeah. Like I f- what was the initial thing? And, you know, everyone has their own way, but I, I did find, like, AI is pretty good at- Yeah ... pushing back on you if you tell it to.

That's, so that's, what you just shared is a takeaway and action item that I am going to myself implement, and I think every entrepreneur who, or, or leader for that matter who's listening to this should and can do that because, you know, not everybody can hire a president to be that filter or that integrator. You can have what you basically described as almost like an AI integrator- Yeah ... uh, to allow you to get your, you know, words out of your head, ideas out of your head, pushback, but also help you maybe prioritize what you might, you know, visit. And now you've got that repository where it's all there. It's like, hey, you could ask it to review everything you've ever discussed over the past however many years and have you revisit anything that might still be sitting on the shelf that is still relevant today, and then kind of have a kill folder or kill file for anything that's just, you know, n- n- is never gonna be looked at. And I think that's a really good idea.

And, you know, obviously you, like anything with AI, you use the disclaimer that, like, y- you don't just take it at its word or follow exactly what it's saying. You gotta still have your agency of mind and, and freedom of thought and, and independent thinking as well. But I think using that as an extra sounding board, uh, is something I'm going to absolutely make part of my, uh, my regimen as well, so I'm glad you shared that. Oh, that's cool. You know, and it's funny, it came out of EOS.

Mm-hmm. Uh, 'cause we, we, I use EOS. I always have, um, I shouldn't say I always have. For at least a decade- Yeah ... every business I've been a part of, some version of, of- Yeah ... Entrepreneur Operating System, um, from, uh, Rocket Fuel, Traction was the first book that he wrote on the topic.

Um, but it was like, you know what? I, I had my pebbles, my rocks, and my boulders, and I was like, but there's these other things that, that ideas that don't, I don't wanna slot into them 'cause I'm not ready to like- Yeah ... make them a true action item. So I was like, I need a place to, to capture these. So I just created a Google Sheet, and then I, like I said, I created this bot for AI that was, um, you know, basically I would give my to-dos list, and then I w- I was like, oh, well, you know, this bot is really just about, like, organizing my, my pebbles, rocks, and boulders, making sure I'm on task. You know, every day it sends me a little report of the things I need to do to stay on track.

But I was like, but what about all these other ideas? And then that's where that came from, where I was like, I just need like a, I, the name of it is actually Barf, like Barf Bot. Like I just barf ideas into it- Yeah ... because, like, you know, they got the app on your phone, so I'll be like driving around, be like, "Oh, what if we did..." You know, and I'll be like, "Da-da-da-da-da." And then the best part, that bot doesn't do anything with it, right?

It just captures the idea and then pushes back. So I don't have to worry about it, like, thinking that that's something I actually wanted to do and then putting it on the list. Right, you don't send it to a team member that's now confused- That's right ... or concerned- That's right. Yeah, yeah ... or distracted. So yeah, it's been- That's phenomenal.

But, you know, it's, it's funny with the AI stuff how, um, a- and I, I mean, I wanna get your take on this. So, um, I'm, and I said this to you before we went live I am so far down the AI rabbit hole. It is, for a non, like a non-technical person, like, it's like I feel like I've... It feels like a whole new version of my career. And, and I, I just give you a little context, and then I'd love for you to respond on this.

So the reason I say that is, like, I've always been a, a salesman and a marketer, right? I didn't know I was gonna be those things growing up, but tho- I just, that's where my, my trajectory has taken me and what I love doing. I love branding. I love marketing. I love business development, sales.

That's just the lo- the place that I, that I, that I've always been in. And, like, for so long, that was like fingers on keyboard, doing video, um, reading books on copywriting. I actually, if you're into copywriting, I just got referred this incredible book called Save the Cat! It's called Save the Cat! Yes.

The name of the book. It's actually on screenwriting, but it is, if you mark it, it is absolutely phenomenal. Save the Cat!, the name of the book. Yeah. So I'm reading that book right now, and, and I, I was thinking about this, and th- this is where this idea of a, of a, of a, of a new, a second career has kinda come out of.

Is like so much of my career, even when I was in a leadership position as, like, a CMO, uh, or, or a CEO, I, it was fingers on keyboards. It was writing the LinkedIn posts. It was doing the, I enjoyed doing the editing of the videos. Like, those were my, uh, I would call it, like, easy mode activities. Um, I don't do much of that anymore.

Now it's more Orchestration of those activities. Mm-hmm. And it's like, it's like this n-this entirely new way of thinking. I'm starting to read, uh, books about, like, how you manage teams because the way I think about the AI agents and bots is, like, l-literally I think of them like humans. I, I know they're not, I'm not delusional, but, like, um, I think of them like humans.

Like, okay, how... If I have someone, if I have one bot that's writing a LinkedIn post, well, w-what, what else would I need on a team? Like, oh, I need someone to make sure, like a researcher, to make sure everything that I wanna say in this post is actually accurate and proper. Okay. So then, what else do I need?

Well, I need a bot that's actually gonna go back and audit and make sure that, you know, these things are actually getting posted. Okay, so I need someone on po- And, like, now it's like this second phase is more about, um, the articulation and orchestration of ideas and workflows- Mm-hmm. Very true ... versus the actual activities of the work and the skills of the work. So, um, and, and this is where the... This is, I'll finish it with this.

Uh, not to go too long here, but the question that hit me was, are you afraid that you're gonna lose your ability to write? That's what someone said to me, right? Like, you've written for 20 years. You've been writing online. You've, you've got, you know, books and different things.

Y- Are you afraid you're gonna lose that skill? And I think it's a very fair question because to a certain extent it is probably true that the farther I get away from every single da- You know, I do Whisperflow Talk-to-Text. Like- Mm-hmm ... the farther I get away from finger on keyboard make words happen, I'm going to lose some of that skill. But I think I'm okay with that because what I think the skill is today is it's more about the quality of the output and how you got there than it is the actual creation of the thing, if that makes sense. And that, that's like a whole new skill set that AI has brought in that didn't necessarily exist before that I'm, like, really excited about and I'm like, yeah, maybe I'm losing a little bit of this skill or it's not as refined, but there's this whole new skill that AI has brought in, particularly for leaders or orchestrators of a team or of a, of a, of a function that- Right ...

I don't think we naturally have and that needs to be developed and become... is going to be the superpower of this next age. I don't know i-if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, no, it absolutely does. I think that, um, I think the piece that was, is for me, so first of all, you're, it sounds like you're more further down some of the rabbit holes than I am, and you're probably closer to some of my buddies, uh, that, that I'm in YPO with.

I, I, I still suffer from a little bit of, uh, AI FOMO where I feel like, you know, I hear some different use cases and I'm like, "Oh, man, I'm, I gotta really spend the time to dig in on this. I'm, I'm mi- I'm missing that, that opportunity." But I think the, the areas that I think we all have to make sure that we don't lose is creative thought, critical thinking, resourcefulness, and kind of discernment, decision-making, uh, being able to, like, identify what's quality versus kind of slop, right? And so the actual physical, physical act of writing out the sentences may become somewhat of an obsolete skill in general. Like, it's just not going to be needed as much.

You know, I don't wanna go so far as to say, like, we won't need writers, but 'cause we still need people that have the ability to, uh, utilize their creative thinking, their critical thinking, their decision-making, their resourcefulness to produce great qualities of writing, of art, of other, you know, things. And there will be probably, uh, uh, a place for stuff that is still human written, man- you know, purely manual wr- manually written. And so I think it's, um, it's kind of like both. Uh, I think what we wanna try to, like, avoid as leaders is becoming just sort of, uh, blind followers of whatever AI is giving us. I think that's where we run the risk of kind of just becoming almost, uh, you know, zombified to, with AI.

And honestly, some of it might happen f- you know, to the doom and gloom sayers, like, without any of us even realizing it, and others it's, it's, you know, I, I still believe in human agency and human, uh, resourcefulness as being, you know, sort of the key unlocks of, you know, since the dawn of man, you know, figuring out to use the tools that you have to be able to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle. And so I think, uh, you know, what you're doing is you're being m-more resourceful to be able to do more, leverage your time more, be more productive and still get more output and, uh, you know, that's an example of, of resourcefulness that's gonna make you more relevant, competitive, you know, interesting, appealing, uh, to, you know, whether it's the marketplace or to your evolution as a, you know, as a human in this new world. Yeah. And guys, I think Nick just nailed it. Judgment, taste, and discernment, that's what makes the product anyways, right?

Yes, sir. Like, at the end of the day, the AI can tell you, "Oh, hey, you should change the hue of your orange, you know, to this color because it, you know, is the hot new color on TikTok or what," but you still have to say like, "I agree with that." Right. Like, "I wanna do that." Like, ultimately, you know, this, this is one of the things that I had someone, um, uh, call me out on LinkedIn privately, uh, not that I would've cared if it was public, but they're like, "Did you, did A- did AI write that LinkedIn post?"

And I said, "Well, define write." And he-- They were like, "Well, did AI create it for you?" And I was like, "AI created most of the words, yes." And they were like, "Well, like, then it's just slop." And I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Oh, oh, hold on. Was the content valuable?" Like- Mm-hmm ... "Was the content valuable?" "Well, you know, yeah.

I mean, I hadn't heard this one thing, but..." "Okay. So what, so, so are we defining slop as simply anything that AI writes?" Because it, 'cause, like, to your point about judgment, taste, and discernment You still have to hit publish. Like, if it's on your LinkedIn, you believe it.

Mm-hmm. Right? Like that, like that's the thing I think we're losing with some of this, is, um, if I hit, if I hit publish on something that AI completely generated that I don't believe in, I believe it because I hit publish on it, right? Mm-hmm. Like, that's...

Like, at the end of the day, who wrote it? Like, how many, how many CEOs are out there r- writing their own tweets even, right? If you're on- Right ... X or whatever. Most of them are not.

Mm-hmm. Most of them are, have a, a, an assistant or a social media person who is doing most of that for them, but we take what, what's on their accounts as- Mm-hmm ... the, their word. So- That's right ... but because a human did it for them, we're like, "Oh, that's okay." But if AI does it, we're like, "Oh, that's slop." And I think this is a trap that we can get into where who does it, what does it, how it gets created, none of that actually matters at all.

What matters at the end of the day is that you could have changed the name of your business, and AI may have even come to you and go, "You're gonna have all these stupid questions, and people are gonna misunderstand you. Change... You should change the name." Like, it would be much more if it were just, like, you know, AAA Best Junk Removal, you know. You'll be at the top of the white pages and, you know, SEO and all this stuff, right?

Like, that would be a very practical response for an AI to give you if you were to say, "Hey, evaluate my brand." But from a judge, taste, and discernment standpoint, you have decided to stick with this brand because you know in your gut, as a founder and a visionary, that this is w- despite the fact that we may get some stupid questions or funky questions or misunderstanding, it sets us so far apart from everyone else. It pattern interrupts, as you said. It, this is where we need to stay. And, like, to me, the skill is getting better at judgment, taste, and discernment.

How you get to those things is far less important today. Does... Do you agree with that premise? I do. Oops, sorry.

My video popped up. Give me a quick second. There you go. Sorry. You, you hadn't moved in enough time.

Yes, right. Um, so, uh, yes, I agree with it. And, um, I also agree, you know, like, the, the recipient, you know, it's up to them to discern. Like, the guy that DM'd you, like, maybe he, for whatever reason, doesn't particularly care for stuff that was written by AI. It, you know, it, it touches a nerve in him, and there might be s- people that see our trucks that don't particularly like the College Hunks name and think it's kind of too, too gimmicky or too corny, or, "Oh, I wouldn't want that truck in my driveway."

And so it's, you know, not ev- all things are for all people. Um, but I think at the end of the day, when it comes to business, it's utilizing the tools and, and the resources that you have available to, uh, achieve an obs- a, a goal or, or overcome an obstacle. And so, you know, for you, getting your message out there, being able to leverage AI as a way to, you know, operate efficiently, you know, most in your audience are gonna find that valuable regardless, uh, whether you physically typed it up yourself or whether you reviewed it and hit, you know, hit publish. And I think, you know, the same is true in, in, you know, the way we approach our marketing, the way we approach, you know, our, our business. Like, if, if we use AI to edit some video or edit, you know, some, some graphic and it still, in my opinion, doesn't look like I would want to represent our brand, then, you know, I'm not gonna put it out there.

But if it does, then, then we'll put it out there. And, and so there's gonna be this sort of like blended, I think, uh, way that, that whether it's content or, uh, systems or just interactions get, uh, evolved, right? So three hundred million dollar business. You've started a second business. You're obviously...

You obviously have proven over time that your judgment, taste, and discernment is, you know, at, at the highest level. You're obviously a reader. You've quoted many books. Like, besides reading or maybe in addition to reading, um, what, what other ways do you hone your judgment, taste, and discernment? Like, how do you get...

If, if, if we're in agreement, and we've kind of set the argument through this conversation that judgment, taste, and discernment are- Yeah ... are really primary skills that every leader, every founder, every entrepreneur has to go in the future, how does someone sitting in the audience continue to refine those things l- like you have? Yeah. Um, look, I mean, I think there's no replacement for, for reps, for just, like, whether it's practicing public speaking or whether it's, you know, looking at, uh, you know, different ad copy and, and identifying what you like, what you don't like or, you know, reading and seeing what, what appeals to you or speaks to you. Uh, in the business context, and again, might sound cliché, but in the early days, we, we created our core values, uh, for the organization, which I define as almost like the guardrails that keep us from driving off the road on our way to the destination. Uh, they help us define the type of people we want within the organization and also even aspirationally, the type of leader that I want to become and, and the, the behaviors that I want to embody.

And so I, I think, uh, looking for ways, information, inspiration, uh, connectivity that sort of aligns with that value set is, is I think for me ways that I've continued to level up that discernment, judgment, and, and taste, like you say, um, so that I don't get distracted. There's, you know, unlimited amounts of information and, and potential distractions out there, good, bad or, or, or ugly or indifferent. And, uh, you know, there's way more options of things you could do with your time. Uh, like I, I think about all the directions I get pulled in now between, you know, family, kids, business, and, and everything else. And so I think having a value set is important.

Uh, so like I don't tend to do much binge Netflixing. You know, I do suffer sometimes from the doom scrolling. Uh, you know, but I, I try to read mostly self-help books, unless, you know, I'm just trying to wind down my mind at night. I might read a fiction, you know, book to, to sort of fall-- be able to fall asleep and, and, and, and slow the mind down. But, um, those have been things that have worked for me, uh, that, you know, as I've, you know, gotten older and there's been more and more responsibilities and pulls in different directions to try to, you know, kind of keep the, the saw sharp and, uh, you know, keep the focus, uh, intentional.

Have you ever, like, worked with, uh, a mentor or, or, or been a mentor to someone else? Like, is, is that part of, like, one-to-one relationship? Has that been part of your journey at all? You know, uh, I can say it has not, uh, in a meaningful way. I've, I've had a ton of mentors myself, um, not one specifically that I can call out, but multiple, uh, that have been very gracious with their time.

And I have served as a mentor in a few different capacities, both one to one and, and, and one to many on, on various occasions. Uh, but none that have sort of maintained the, the 20-plus years of, of my career. Uh, I will say I'm a big believer, and I've gotten a ton out of the peer groups I mentioned before. You know, currently I'm in YPO, Young Presidents Organization. I've got a forum group, uh, of roughly five other business owners.

We meet monthly. We're sharing business, personal, family updates, you know, talking through some of the challenges and, and struggles that we go through. Uh, building leaders is one of our core values as an organization, so I do quite a bit of, you know, kind of leadership education for the folks within our organization, especially the client-facing movers and haulers, so that they can develop people skills and leadership skills that can carry them through their career. So, you know, it's funny, when I was younger, I used to say I wanted to be a basketball coach when I grew up. And then I was like, "Well, you know, uh, maybe I'll try to figure out a way to make a bunch of money, and then I'll go be a basketball coach."

And eventually I do plan to get into some actual basketball coaching, but I feel like a lot of what I'm doing in our organization by empowering our franchise owners, you know, creating business best practices for folks to follow, is somewhat of a coaching, uh, element, uh, that is fulfilling as well. So I wa- I wanna finish on this topic. Um, you've mentioned the word resourcefulness mul-multiple times. Um, why is resourcefulness such a key quality, um, to, to being, you know, a high achiever? And, and how do you cultivate resourcefulness?

Like, if you feel maybe like that's not something that you... is, is up to as par as you want it to be- Yeah ... someone's listening to this, and they're like, "Man, you know, I, I, I just don't feel like I am as resourceful as I should be." I don't know that people are self-evaluate- Sure ... maybe necessarily that way, but, like, how do you cultivate resourcefulness into your life, being that it is such a key quality? Yeah. Well, I think today more than ever, you know, you hear about IQ, EQ, and, and AI. I think being able to be resourceful, figure out how to achieve a goal, how to overcome an obstacle, whether it's something that happens, you know, in a small micro example or it's a big, you know, macro goal that somebody is trying to achieve, uh, is going to be the critical unlock of, of our modern era.

I think it's always been kind of u- a universal, uh, muscle or intelligence or skill that, that people have leveraged, whether it was, you know, in the farming agrarian days to the industrial age to now this kind of a- age of, of artificial intelligence. And so what I didn't realize when we started our business is, like, our business in and of itself is somewhat of a resourcefulness factory because when we send our frontline employees out to do a job, every move is different. You know, every hallway is different. Every piece of furniture is different. You know, every set of tools is different.

So we actually had, uh, an example where, uh, our mover was doing a move at an assisted f- living facility. There was an elderly woman in the elevator w- that he was on, and the elevator got stuck, which I thought only happened in movies, and she was having a bit of a panic attack. He got on his hands and knees and let her sit on his back while the elevator was being worked on, like almost like a human bench. And it ended up, somebody took a picture of it once the fire department got the elevator open. It went viral.

And there's nothing we could have put in our operating manual, what do you do if you're stuck in a elevator with an elderly woman and, you know, how do you figure out what to do? He just sort of acted based on what he had at his, you know, uh, dis- you know, uh, discretion and, um, and it tr- proved to be a pretty impactful moment and, and I would say a shining example of our company culture and, and values at, in, in action, but also an example of resourcefulness. So I think stretching your comfort zone, putting yourself in, in places where you don't have all the answers is a good way to practice being resourceful. Practice figuring out, you know, situations where you don't have all the answers. I think becoming an entrepreneur, you just have to, like, bottom, basically, like, lean into the fact that, like, we're gonna have to figure out how to get this done with the tools that we have at our available.

How much money, time, relationships do we already have? Kind of do an audit of your existing resources. And then what additional money, energy, people, resources do I need to be able to tap into to build this vision that I have? And I think that's gonna be m- more and more critical as, uh, information becomes universal and, uh, ability to do things with AI becomes more and more advanced. Nick, dude, I, I could talk to you all day.

Um- Yeah ... I love your mindset. I love what you built. I love the way that you built it. Um, I love how you're just willing to come on and, and rip and riff on exactly how you built this business and the way your mind works.

It's obviously an incredible organization. Um, if people wanna follow along with you, your ideas, your work, like, w- where should they go? How do people connect with you deeper? Yeah. So we created a website, nickfriedman.com, F-R-I-E-D-M-A-N.

It's got links at the bottom to all my social media. I'm pretty active on Instagram and LinkedIn. Uh, you can also learn about our franchise opportunities or, you know, some of the other things we've done speaking and, and otherwise media. So, um, that's probably the easiest way to connect, but I appreciate, uh, appreciate the opportunity. I love it.

We'll have, uh, links to that and Nick's social media in the show notes, guys, so whether you're listening or watching on YouTube, just scroll down, you'll be able to find him. Dude, appreciate the hell out of you. Love it. This is a tremendous conversation, man. Wish you nothing but the best.

Awesome. Appreciate it. Likewise. All right, you badasses. Thanks for hanging out with us today.

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