Entrepreneurship, Risk, and the Next Generation of Leaders

[00:00:00] Because entrepreneurs are the ones that left their current countries to come here, and that's deep in our blood, deep and broad in our blood. We really want to make a little bet, right? Fire bullets before you fire cannonballs. And I think that's what we have to look at as entrepreneurs. At the same time, there's no reward without a risk. And so then I realized, whatever I do, if I produce value, someone will see that and contribute to it. If you are not self-disciplined, you're not going to be a good entrepreneur. If you can't wake yourself up to show up at 8 o'clock and make sure that you're doing everything necessary to run the business for, you're not a good entrepreneur. So that's the first one. Second is others.

[00:00:29] You're not going to get very far just working for yourself. Because I believe entrepreneurs are not successful for only two reasons, one of two reasons, fear or focus. They are either comprehensively afraid and they'll never move forward, and you can hear that in their language, or they don't have the ability to focus on something that will lead to their success. Rocky, I appreciate you taking some time to jump on the program. I'm looking forward to this conversation. Thanks, Walter. Let me start with the question I ask a lot of guests.

[00:00:58] Is there a book that you reread or you gift a lot to business colleagues? Well, I would say, one, I was heavily influenced by Zig Ziglar early. But if I'm going to take a book, I would say the book is actually going to be the book that I wrote. And I know it sounds self-edifying, but I think it's valuable for the conversation. And it's transformed through purpose because really, you know, the content that I've learned over my 30-year sales career is, you know, first, develop self. And that's what this first book, Transform Through Purpose is.

[00:01:26] Second book is Lead Exponentially, I wrote, and that's develop others. And the third is brand new, and it's going to be released out in the summer. And that's about developing organizations. And interwoven through all of those are the sales experience I've developed over my career that led to my entrepreneurial journey and the systems you can build multiple business tracks on. And so those would be the ones I'd recommend. But if you ask me externally to that, I think I love Zig Ziglar early in my career. I listened to his tapes. It was Automobile University.

[00:01:54] Back when we had cassette tapes in the car. And then some had CDs for a while. For sure. And we drove places in cars and went to talk to people in offices. That used to happen. Yeah. Not as much as it used to. I mean, you told me you spoke to, what, three different countries today. That's correct. Yeah. All on these platforms like this. And it's highly available. As much as you talk to other countries, there's so much that's different, but there's a lot that's the same. Right?

[00:02:23] We all have aspirations to be better and grow and have impact as entrepreneurs, regardless of the country we reside within. One of the countries you mentioned is a little different than us, but I only know that because of my wife's family from southern Germany. But that's the cool part of people and meeting from other cultures, right? You kind of get to see where we're the same and where we're different.

[00:02:52] And those unique aspects are really what keep things interesting because we're all humans. Absolutely. And I think, you know, I've thought about this personally is, you know, we look at every, pretty much everyone in America. I mean, there are Native Americans, of course, were immigrants. And I look at our economy started in the 1700s, realistically, right? You know, with a formation in the United States. And we were not even on the radar. And now we're the world's biggest economy.

[00:03:18] And it really didn't pass the rest of Europe until the early 1900s, specifically. And I thought, why? Because entrepreneurs are the ones that left their current countries to come here. And that's deep in our blood, deep and broad in our blood. And the business was set up to support them. And all these other countries, you know, Germany specifically, they're in a flat economy. Right? And so, why? Because all the entrepreneurs are gone. And so, that's really the power of America.

[00:03:46] And then I thought, what is the long-term impact? Because, I mean, obviously, cyclically, we can be impacted by, you know, economics. And where will America be going forward? And then I've been to over 60 countries myself. And I realized the infrastructure here is so, so stable that we can build on top of it. I'm talking about our roads, our power, our internet. I mean, you go to other countries, you don't necessarily, you have traffic jams. And the way that it's all set up, water's consistent here, clean, all these other things. So, then you can go build on top of that.

[00:04:16] But if you don't have those things, you can't build on it. You got to worry about eating that day, drinking water, making sure your internet doesn't go down and your power isn't there. Paying off a government official and just going through the bureaucracy. I mean, we have that and we complain about it, but it's a lot better here than it is in other countries. And we complain about it a lot. But if we went and visited some other countries, we could come home and be appreciative of what it is we have. Let's talk a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey.

[00:04:45] Like, when you were a kid, did you think you were going to be doing what you're doing right now? Yeah. So, I'm going to go back since we started it. And we mentioned this right before. My great-great-grandfather immigrated from Auerbach in Switzerland. He was 18 years old, one of four boys. Came here, got the money out of his grandfather's or his dad's pocket and then hopped on a train. Months later, landed in Duncan, Nebraska, here in the middle of Nebraska where I live in Omaha. It's about an hour and a half from here. And then he farmed the land, got his land act, staked his claim. Now he was an owner of a farm, right? First entrepreneur.

[00:05:14] And then he had four sons, which was my great-grandfather. They staked a claim. My grandfather came and was farming and tractors had been invented and crops had accelerated. And my dad talked to my grandfather and my grandfather said, what do you want to be? And my dad said, I'll be a farmer. He said, no, you're not. He said, I am not making any money as a farmer. Production's gone way up and price has gone way down. And I'm going to work until I can't work anymore. And you're going to go to college.

[00:05:39] And so my dad left and went to college, University of Nebraska actually, and then became a shop teacher, like an industrial arts teacher at a school. And he was teaching them how to farm fix things, right? And so again, that was a carry forward. And then he eventually got an opportunity to build homes and became a superintendent. Then he started his superintendent business about the time I started this business, 19 years ago, actually. And so then that was the journey.

[00:06:07] And so I feel compelled to carry that entrepreneurial spirit forward because like I said, when I kind of talked about immigration here, I had an entrepreneurial is maybe it's in my blood to that degree. And so then I remember in junior high, in fact, I got in trouble for this and I never really tell a story. I got my first Saturday school, but I saw that gum was being sold in a vending machine for 25 cents a pack. And it was that double mint gum, if you know that. And so I was at Target and I saw 10 packs for a dollar. And I thought, this is 10 cents.

[00:06:34] So I'd go sell those packs of gum to my friends for a quarter. And I mean, making money and the teacher's like, you are selling drugs is what they said. That's what they got me on. I was like, well, technically there's nothing in this gum. And they're like, what sugar? I'm like, okay, I guess technically that's. And so then. Which was in my vending machine though? Yeah, exactly. That's all she could give me on the technicality, but I was underwriting their income. But what I really realized, and I think this was the starting point is that as an entrepreneur, it's really solving a problem with service is really where I'm leaning now.

[00:07:04] Better than the alternative. And so I didn't care about gum. I cared about making a little bit of money as a seventh, eighth grader. And so then I went to college. And when I was in college, my freshman year, I had a construction background, given my dad's experience. And I moved in and I saw lofts being built for dorm rooms. And you'd slide a bed underneath it. And I saw that first week that you could rent it from the university for 140 bucks. I was like, I can build something for less than that and make money. And so there was two big pressure poles.

[00:07:32] They were concrete floors and ceilings. And you'd get this steel beam that you just tighten. And you put a chain around that and around the bed frame very simplistically. And I went to a local hardware store, got all the supplies I needed. It was $38.47 to build one. And so then I priced it for $120 to sell it. And then I found my target audience, which was I have two daughters, one's 24, one's 22. It's the dad of daughters because they have cash in their pocket. The daughters bring way too much stuff for stuff. And so I just followed them up. And here's a young college kid walked up and I said, hey, I can help you fit all that

[00:08:02] in the dorm room. And I said, how are you going to do that? I said, I'll build a loft. I'll be in and out in 20 minutes, but it's going to be $120 cash. And then I would say to the roommates dad, I said, if you both buy it right now, $100 each, you'll eat. And of course, I got 200 bucks. $5,000 later in three weeks, I had installed all these lofts. And so again, I saw a problem. I then resolved that solution. And of course, that wasn't a scalable business, but it was easy money for a new college student to pay for my semester. For a kid, yeah, they paid back then. It probably paid for a couple of semesters. Oh yeah. Yep.

[00:08:32] And it was a really good money. And so that was their early entrepreneurial journey. And I think, you know, part of it that's, I think relevant for the audience is I always tell people this, and this is really my journey. The first thing is I own my job, right? Whatever job I had, I always owned it. I always had that entrepreneurial mind to say, if I were the leader here, if I were the owner of this business, how would I want my employee to perform? And I did that. So that's the first step, right? The second step is I came alongside an owner.

[00:08:56] So early, my first real job, I was working construction and I came alongside an owner and the owner was, at first I owned my job. He was, we laid blocks in a basement, right? And so I was doing that. I mean, made $35,000 a year, my senior year of high school. I mean, that's how much I was working there. And so I would work hard and he hired me at $4.25. And that was the minimum wage here in Nebraska. And my first paycheck came, he goes, Reed, I'm going to pay $8.50. I said, what? Why are you doing that? He said, you did an amazing job.

[00:09:25] My full-time guys are getting paid $10 an hour and I can't justify paying you $4.25. And so then I realized whatever I do, if I produce value, someone will see that and contribute to it. And so I owned my job. But that's the secret of growing as a person and as an employee. You add value, you're worth more, you get paid more. Yep. And somebody will notice it. The second thing is I came alongside an owner. That's the next step. And so then I said, wait a minute, I'm doing my job, but what is he really trying to accomplish?

[00:09:55] And so as I worked for him for four and a half years and he was the owner of this construction business, I said, how do I make him more efficient and help somewhat manage outside of my scope? And so I tried to see, I knew what he was trying to accomplish. And I always tell this story. I remember getting my first one-on-one as a 14 year old. And he goes, what are you doing doing yelling down at me? And I thought that was my management evaluation. I was like, oh, I was scared. You know, this is the toughest guy I knew at the time, you know, super scared.

[00:10:22] And he's like, anytime you walk down that ramp, you need to see that stuff. It needs to come down. Anytime you walk up, see that stuff. It needs to go up. So never walk around here empty handed. Never forgot that. And I realized he's paying hourly for efficiency. So then I started looking around and saying, what all needs to be done? That I can see not what am I doing, but what needs to be done. And so I came alongside an owner and I really believe that began to plant within me a mindset to say, if I want to be an owner, what would I want done? And if I'm an employee, how can I help the owner accomplish that?

[00:10:51] And then eventually I was prepared to be an owner. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs step into a job and they don't realize they hired somebody and that's someone they hired as themselves. And they hired themselves and they never owned their other job. They never came alongside owner. In fact, they probably complained about them, how they underpaid them and everything else. And now they're the owner and who are they going to complain about? And they've hired somebody that never owned a job in their lives and never came alongside and I told those people at the beginning, don't be an owner because you're a bad one. And don't be an employee because you're a bad one of your ownership.

[00:11:19] So that's kind of the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. But that concept of owning, you know, coming up alongside an owner, right? And, you know, there's a lot there to unpack, but just being cognizant of what it means to make payroll, what it means to try to drive to an outcome that that guy sold to somebody else or that, you know, it's his responsibility to deliver on. And he's got a bunch of, you know, worker bees out there, some who care, some who don't.

[00:11:48] But once you understand what it means to make payroll, right? Now you're really an entrepreneur because, you know, we've all sweated out making payroll at some point and did what was necessary to do that. I love that concept. And I have a 24-year-old. Well, she'll be 24 in a couple of weeks.

[00:12:12] And, you know, with her work ethic and her desire to do a great job just because she's not going to do something half-assed, like you should own the world in like 10 years, right? There's nothing you can't accomplish when you have the right work ethic and that desire to keep getting better. And, you know, she also raises her hand when she's stuck, right?

[00:12:38] And she's not happy about it, but she goes to the people that are above her and say, hey, when you had this problem, what did you do? And they're like, well, you have this option, you have that option. Like, and then they solve a problem because, and she's realized that they don't look down on her. They actually appreciate the fact that she's trying to solve a problem that normally gets swept under the rug.

[00:13:03] But learning that at 14, 15 years old is a pretty powerful, powerful lesson to learn. Entrepreneurs drive this company, drive this country, right? You kind of spoke to that before about the infrastructure that's in place and the regulatory situation that we can, you know, go start a business without a lot of grief. And even as a kid, you can go build something, right?

[00:13:32] You probably didn't have all the insurance and you probably didn't have all the, all the, the, the, the, the certifications for that, but it stood up. You knew how to do it. You took your skill and put it to work. And that's really the essence of entrepreneurial business. So the premise of us getting together and having this was something that I saw you had talked

[00:13:55] about that the generation of, I'm going to call them kids, 20s and 30 year olds. They're not, they're not millennials. What the hell are they? Gen Y? Gen Y. Yep. And I would say W-H-Y. Why? That kind of why? Because they always want to understand why. Yeah. W-H-Y. All right. I'll, I'll use that because my daughter calls me a boomer, um, when she's trying to annoy me, um, which is often.

[00:14:23] So that, that group, I mean, your, your premise was they have so much stuff coming at them. There's so many, um, access to information and, and, and, and, and activities out there, but they don't have somebody that like we had. And I'll, I'll kind of let you pick it up from there and talk about those, those names. Yeah. So basically, uh, you know, I think that the next generation of entrepreneurs is going to approach the world differently.

[00:14:51] And I'm going to go back to my family legacy story. So my great, great grandfather immigrated here to be an entrepreneur out of scarcity. There was nothing left. Right. Then my great grandfather did it for opportunity. Right. There's because there was four people in, in, uh, Auerbach in Switzerland to divide about an acre. You couldn't feed multiple families there. Right. Wouldn't happen. And so then he left for scarcity. My great grandfather was out of opportunity. Right.

[00:15:19] My grandfather stopped it because of economics. My dad, he wanted opportunity that would lead to autonomy. Right. He went to become a teacher. And what does that mean? I'll do any job anywhere, but I want to have some autonomy when I retire a pension, uh, you know, an autonomy retire. Yeah. Some form of security. And we see that with that generation of workforce and that's entrepreneurialism to them. Then we look at my generation that I'm in and we want opportunity, but earlier autonomy. Right.

[00:15:48] So I'll work hard in my twenties so I can have a house I want to own in my thirties and go join a golf course in my thirties. I don't have to wait till I'm 65 to move to Florida and Arizona. That's the previous generation, right? That's where their autonomy came in. This next generation of 20 year olds. Now they want autonomy and opportunity that fits within that. I want to work where I want to work. I want to live where I want to live. I want to do what I want to do. What's the best opportunity within that? The previous generations were moving anywhere to do anything that is very general.

[00:16:13] And so I watched that and I see that entrepreneurialism is threatened, if not dying for that same reason. And so at the forefront of that, I think, how can I position this to work towards this next generation? And so I'm going to do, I am doing something technology and we use technology as a kind of a forefront of that. And, you know, Walter, we kind of had a pre, a pre-show conversation and we talked about first sales was getting the phone book and that was your sales leads, right? It's like, here's the names and phone numbers of everybody you need to talk to. And I remember someone telling me and they're like, one out of a hundred of these are buyer.

[00:16:43] You just got to find the one. And so call the 100, you know, and then we're like, oh my gosh. And so, you know, we're dialing all the way down. And then eventually in the, I worked for Xerox in the late nineties and they had a database. They had the first, you know, effectively the CRM with a lead database, they preloaded and there was phone numbers in there. So at least it was somewhat automated. You still had to do the auto dialers came in and I, I did telemarketing early on selling sprint phone conversions, et cetera. So they started getting these auto dialers and databases. Well, that is no longer relevant. People don't pick up phone calls anymore, right? They don't add the data. Now it's all on an app driven basis.

[00:17:13] And so recognizing that I built a software application that takes away the company in contact. This is super critical to understand. So the company in contact used to be where you got that lead. Well, now people stay at a job for less than three years. So their name is not relevant to the contact that was associated with. People don't stay at the same career for 40 years. So you call them and they're like, oh, sorry, new number. And people don't answer the phone. So I built a database that's a site location associated. What does that mean? Think Zillow. It doesn't matter who owns the home, right?

[00:17:43] That home has, you know, 1500 square feet, three bedroom, two bath. It still has a lawn that needs to be mowed, et cetera, et cetera. So that's what a salesperson needs is the actual service that you'd provide for that. So B2C though, not B2B. We do B2B. I built the database B2B. I'm using Zillow as an example. So I have all the commercial real estate listings. And then in our franchise concept, whatever services of them reconciles that lead. So in my case, I have a security business. If they buy security services, I know who the point of contact is, current and relevant,

[00:18:12] how, what type of service they're currently buying and where their payment terms are. Then I launched another franchise concept, FilterGo, which leads to this 20-year-old. So if they have any commercial air conditioning unit, they need a filter replaced. Then I can go and get pest control, same lead, same contact, same information, know all the other information that's on that database because they own the database now. And all these services are reconciled against that. And I know the margins that that does, how frequently they pay, their financial circumstances, all the data that you'd ever want from them. And so it's on the front side.

[00:18:38] So now that I have that, I have simplified our sales process to target a 20-year-old, the 20-year-old to come in there. They would buy the franchise in that geographic area, right? With that lead that's all used from other services. Then they would get a vehicle, go knock on the door, ask for that person by name and offer the service in an app-based format. So the next step of that is just like a point of sales software at a retail location, ours is all on the phone. So you're saying, okay, let's use the filter example.

[00:19:08] That's what the 20-year-olds will be doing. You walk in and you say, hey, are you aware, sir, that you need to replace your filters? That's part of your lease agreement. No, I didn't. Second question. Do you mind if I go up on your roof and see if it's being switched? No, go ahead. Walk up onto the roof, take a picture of their filter in the app, come down and say, hey, you know, if you don't change this, you had a $10,000 expense to replace your air conditioning unit and that's at your expense on your lease agreement. Oh, wow. Would you like me to change your filter? Sure.

[00:19:37] And then in the app, 20 by 20 filter, replace quarterly, charge right there on the phone. Then they come and install it the next day. They take a picture. Everybody gets notified. I as the franchisor, the client gets notified. That builds up a database, right? So then literally they're living in an app. And so now they have autonomy. They can work whenever they want. They just look at the app to when they're going to do it. It's essentially Uber Eats for commercial B2B businesses. I do the same with pest control, security services, you name it. And I'm targeting 20 year olds. How am I getting them? I am developing.

[00:20:06] And this is, I know, part of our pre-show. I have thenextinleadership.com. And so as we discussed, you said, who's my favorite sales book? Zig Ziglar. And I was part of Automobile University. I'd buy the tapes, put it in there and play. I realized when I first started my first sales job, I had a sales manager advising me on how to improve my sales skills. However, that doesn't happen anymore, right? Nobody's in an office anymore. Nobody comes alongside and says, hey, say it this way instead of that way. Try to do this instead of that. Drive along. I mean, I had a manager riding along with me on sales calls. It doesn't happen anymore, right?

[00:20:35] And so that's what this next in leadership is. It's going to be categorized for that just as I started with the books. First, you're going to develop self. If you are not self-disciplined, you're not going to be a good entrepreneur. If you don't know, if you can't wake yourself up to show up at eight o'clock and make sure that you're doing everything necessary to run the business for, you're not a good entrepreneur. So that's the first one. Second is others. You're not going to get very far just working for yourself. And so then you develop others. That's next in leadership. And if you're at that point and you're ready to launch an organization, that's where these franchises are available.

[00:21:02] And they're going to be available in those geographic areas going back to the zip code. So if you live in, I live in Omaha. I live in Omaha. You'd see the lot that's available, all the leads that come with it, and you acquire that territory. I carry it back 100% because that's the other inhibitor. So I don't charge them any cash up front for it. I carry it back, meaning they're paying a payment stream, lease to own kind of until they pay it off. And so that eliminated all the entrepreneurial risk for a 20-year-old, right? They don't have the money to get started. I take that away from them.

[00:21:31] They just have to be willing and able to work and do it for themselves. And so those are the concepts I'm building, all in franchising, because that gives them a secondary sale and a system that monitors that. And that's the objective of targeting them, to give them complete autonomy and the ability to own their own business. So how do you create accountability and know that this person is going to have that discipline to go climb up on that roof and knock on that door? Excellent question. So first of all, that's what a franchise agreement is. You lose your business, basically, right?

[00:22:01] I mean, there's performance metrics in that franchise agreement, just like a contract for a sports figure, right? If you're not showing up to practice, they can find you. Same kind of thing, one. Number two is I have direct visibility of the data. So our software works similar to Uber, right? So if an Uber pickup is not happening, someone will get alerted that something's gone wrong. And so our software has those monitoring practices real time in there, right? And then if there's no activity in there, that also lets me know, right? That, hey, you're supposed to be logged into this app on this time, and obviously it sets alerts.

[00:22:30] So it's all managed by the app, just like any other app that you'd see on any other device. And you'd know it has GPS on it, obviously, tracking where they're going and whatnot, and as they log in. But more importantly is they're not getting paid to do the work unless they get a client. So why would you buy a business? I mean, you sit at home and make no money. And if you're not doing that, then I just get rid of you. But if it's purely commissioned. Yeah. I mean, inside of that, there's the accountability. But I guess my question, I'll rephrase it.

[00:22:58] How do you identify that pre-entrepreneur, right? They haven't done it, right? How do you identify before they sign on the dotted line that they're a good candidate? Because I've seen, I've owned a franchise, and I've seen other franchisees at conferences, and it's like, wow, how the hell did you get into the same business that I am? You can barely sell your way out of a paper bag.

[00:23:27] And sometimes, you know, that's the model of the franchisor, right? I'm not saying that's yours, but there were franchisors just looking to sell, get that up front. So yours is dependent upon them being successful. So how do you evaluate them to make sure? Yeah. So, you know, in this concept, I've sold 500 franchisees. And then preceding that, I had 250 before that. So I've sold 750 of them. And that is, you know, countless leads before that, right? And I've met with all of them personally, right?

[00:23:54] I've been, I meet with all of them and I make the final decision in every sense. And so what I've learned to directly answer your question is their language. Why? Because your thoughts precipitate your language, your language precipitates your actions. So if they are saying, and here's what I'm specifically listening for, I know who owns them by how they say that. If they're looking at, well, why didn't your career work? Oh, blame, blame, blame, blame, blame. Responsibility. Right.

[00:24:21] So if they don't take responsibility in their language for their current or past circumstances, and then the second sage, if they say take responsibility, are you looking at the present or the future? If they're saying, well, what do you offer me right now? And what can I do right now? What contracts do I have right now that'll stabilize, right? Because I believe entrepreneurs are not successful for only two reasons. One of two reasons, fear or focus. They are either comprehensively afraid and they'll never move forward. And you can hear that in their language.

[00:24:51] Or they don't have the ability to focus on something that will lead to their success. And so I am listening. Is that fear going to overcome you when the rubber hits the road and you can't make your payroll as you described? Or are you going to be too distracted to make your payroll because you can't focus on what needs to be done in the moment? And so I'm listening. Are they governed by their greatest fear? Or do they quickly lose focus, neither of which will make them a good entrepreneur? And then, of course, it's intuition.

[00:25:19] And I know we're discussing a pre-call that you always ask a question at the end, and it's about cigars, of course, and that's part of the show. And the answers have surprised you from different people. And I would say the same thing in that as well. Some people you thought didn't have the ability to do that. And so that's where it has to be. As an entrepreneur, we cannot analyze everything and let the analytics offer the business. We have to leverage analytics to use our intuition. And so then it comes down to intuition, Walter. And so I'll tell you, some of the people that others would never bet on are the best bets I would make.

[00:25:49] And some people everyone would bet on I would never consider to bet on. And so it's because of that experience selling 750 franchises and knowing what has happened, I built intuition over the time. And how do you document that? It's difficult to answer the question because it's hard to pass that over. But at the same time is, I know a winner when I see one, and I can tell a loser when I can't. And there's the people in between. They're going to have to figure it out over time. And you've got to take that risk too. You know, we do a lot of interviewing of salespeople and sales leaders.

[00:26:17] And, you know, there's a lot of data points in there that we look at. You know, there's certain analytics that we look at. There's certain data points that we, you know, from the resume to, you know, a cover letter to just all of these pieces. And a lot of it is their language, the linguistics that you're talking about, right? You know, how are they phrasing things? Do they take responsibility?

[00:26:40] And what it comes down to is you've got all of this information that should help you disqualify candidates along the way, right? And this is what I try to help somebody think about it this way. We're looking to find the reason why this person might not be successful. And if that pops up, then we have to deal with it, right? And you ask the extra question, you dig into it a little bit. Maybe it's resolved. Maybe it's not.

[00:27:09] If it's not, we disqualify. But if they're like, okay, right? Then you keep moving. At the end, if they've gotten to that end and they've gotten through all of those hurdles and they've answered things right and there's no perfect candidate, do we think they're going to do it? Do we believe it? Are they going to be a fit for our culture? Those are all data points. And it comes down to making a flying by the seat of your pants is what we used to do.

[00:27:38] But with this data, we can make a more informed decision. Because a lot of entrepreneurs don't have the experience hiring salespeople with any success and they don't learn from their mistakes. So you have 750 successful, well, you have 750 hires. Most of them are probably successful, right? And you've learned from the ones that weren't just as much as you learned from the ones that were, right? I would imagine.

[00:28:07] So it does come down to that gut instinct. And it's a calculated risk, right? And I think the way that I built this model- You've mitigated it, though. Yeah, that's right. Exactly. And so what we can do is instead of taking a huge risk that they're driving for 10 years in our car and they're a poor performer, the calculated risk is to say, okay, if I can invest 90 days and see if they can perform or not and then get rid of them, then I haven't risked the other nine and a half years or whatever of time. And so we really want to make a little bet, right?

[00:28:34] I mean, fire bullets before you fire cannonballs, you know? And I think that's what we have to look at as entrepreneurs. At the same time is we don't, there's no reward without a risk. And so there's many times, and I tell people this, the first year, it's a cost to the employer. The second year should be washed. The third year, the employer makes all the money returns. And so if I'm seeing you're not trending to be a, you know, second year even washed, then I need to make that decision earlier than later because you're, and here's the thing as an employer and it's important for entrepreneurs that hire people. Many people feel bad letting people go.

[00:29:05] Instead, I realized I am holding a new employee back from a huge opportunity that this person squandering. So if you're an entrepreneur and you're concerned about who you are letting go, so of course, we're humans. We shouldn't want to let them go, but they, they're getting let go for a reason that they've contributed to either one, not doing what you're asking or not performing as well. But secondarily, more importantly, who could step in and do better for you and them themselves, right?

[00:29:30] I can tell you my, some of the things that I take the greatest pride in is the career trajectory of people that filled the roles of others I vacated because someone is unperforming. And I took a risk on them and they performed and they're thriving in their careers. Yeah. That, but that's part of the joy of, of being an entrepreneur, right? Right. Is, is, is seeing the people that you're working with elevate, right? Not all of them are going to, and, you know, we are humans.

[00:30:00] And, you know, if you've had to let somebody go, you know, that it is not even the worst of the worst. It's still not a fun experience. I've never gotten joy out of letting somebody go. Um, because you're, it's, it's a human and they're, you're affecting their life and, and, you know, they may have made all the bad decisions, but, but let them go be successful in another spot.

[00:30:23] But more importantly to what you said, give somebody else a shot to, to be successful and to change their life. Um, and, and that's part of the, that's part of the entrepreneurial thing, building that team, right? Which you've alluded to with your, with your books, right? Giving them the, the ability to leading them to help them see that path. I mean, I knew we were going to, we were going to get deep into this and, and get, get to a

[00:30:51] time constraint, but if somebody is interested in learning more, where do they go to learn more about Reed or learn more about the franchise, to learn more about these opportunities, especially if they're a kid. Yep. The next in leadership.com. And so that is a site that they can find, of course, find me, but also the content and then offer, obviously the opportunities, any franchise concept. And for me, it's not necessarily to sell a franchise, right? I'm, I'm doing that anyway.

[00:31:18] I'm growing the business, but really I look at who's going to carry the next economy 20 years from now, right? Who's the person that my great, great grandfather didn't realize they're creating an opportunity for, and I'm going to carry that forward. And so I really want to invest in the next generation because we have to do that as the next generation leaders, right? And so the next in leadership is a platform to do that. And, you know, I think many people in our generation are concerned, if not complaining about how are they going to carry the economy. And I'm a believer of doing something about that instead of just talking about it.

[00:31:46] And so that's why this website, the next in leadership is a tool for that. It'll be where this podcast will be at among other things as just content they can consume to develop. They can have their own automobile. They can have their exercise university, right? Is that where they listen to your podcast on the treadmill or whatever? So. Yeah. I mean, sometimes it's in the car. Sometimes it's on a treadmill. I don't know. Some people might listen to it in the bathroom for all I know. But I think that's kind of the last point is that to have a passion for a business, to

[00:32:15] do something for a community, right? Not just a geographic, but a community of 20 and 30 year olds to have an opportunity to experience what we've experienced, you know, the joy of entrepreneurship. Because I think we're all, I say this all the time, like I'm unemployable. I have a client that, you know, I'm trying to help them fill a role. And they're like, you know, it'd just be a lot easier if you would just take this job. Right.

[00:32:44] And, you know, I'm like, well, one, I take a pay cut too. I'm unemployable. I just couldn't go work for somebody anymore. It's just not too many, too many constraints. So last question, pastor, president, any relationship with cigars, Reed? You know, I'm probably going to give you an obscure answer. You probably didn't think about, but cigars to me, the tobacco was one of the first consumed products for the sake of enjoyment.

[00:33:12] And it actually set up distribution channels across the globe. And I realized tobacco is there, but ultimately it was a piece offering at the earlier stages and created pieces as a form of entertainment. It was a time where they socialized, certainly that, and I would say alcohol at the same time. But amazingly, it set up distribution channels as a way to pass. And so to me, I think it is a tool that has created community connections in ways that

[00:33:42] you would never consider. And I learned that by reading Plants That Changed the World. It was an interesting, I was just, I maybe educate myself, 50 plants that changed the world. And that was one of them. And it was one of them that people hadn't considered. Of course, the coffee bean being another one. And the cocoa bean being a big one. But I thought that was interesting to see how it set up distribution. And because it was lightweight, easy to carry and pack, but also something that could be social and consumed as opposed to something that you get caloric benefit from or otherwise. Well, you're the first person to mention that.

[00:34:12] You're the first person to mention the fact that Native Americans, Indians, that was a way of a ritual and to demonstrate some ability to communicate. It would be nice that maybe we should send a box of cigars to our friends in Washington and have them start learning how to freaking communicate and getting along a little better. They'd probably cash in that box if you're sending it, to be honest. But maybe that's how things operate up there. I don't know.

[00:34:39] Yeah, I'd get in trouble because it's illegal for me to send cigars because I don't have a license. Ah, gotcha. But the premise is the same, right? Because I can travel wherever and find the cigar shop and go in. And I've got instant connection with whoever's in that space, right? They could be a group of farmers. My daughter lives in Lexington, Kentucky, and she stayed there after school.

[00:35:09] And I went into this one little cigar shop. And it happens when you go into a small one. It's always the same. Everybody turns and looks. So who's the new guy, right? And what's he going to do? And then they see you go into the humidor, come out with a stick, and then they're looking to see what it is. And then they nod approvally or not. And then you're in, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's it. No words spoken.

[00:35:35] If you come in and look for some vape refiller or something, you're not in. Right. You're going to be asked to leave. But that's part of that is, for me, is social. And it's also something that allows me to, like, I have a contemplative cigar from time to time, where I take my notebook and a cigar, and sometimes there's bourbon involved. But I can sit there and write. I can think, right?

[00:36:05] Because my hands are occupied, and I can just, you know, my brain is just working. And I call that contemplative. But a lot of time, it's just getting together with a bunch of guys, solving the world's problems and talking smart. Yeah. So we'll have all of those websites in the show notes. It's an intriguing prospect for that young man or woman that, how many women do you have that are doing this?

[00:36:34] As franchise owners, probably less than 10% of our franchises are in the security space. I think the filter business, there may be more. You know, security is a, you know, if you're paying attention to kind of how things go, it's a little bit of a, it's overnight work for one. You know, number two, it's a, you know, you got to be prepared for challenges. So I think not, it's not as appealing. Let's put it that way. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Curious. All right. Reed, appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time. And, and thanks for, thanks for helping that community.

[00:37:04] Thanks, Walter. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Thanks for welcoming. Thank you.