Then once I came out of my COVID slumber there, my COVID comeback,
Speaker:when God shook me and told me, Hey, it's time to get serious.
Speaker:Uh, that's when fireside really took off.
Speaker:We went from 12 locations.
Speaker:two years ago to, I think we have under 60 now.
Speaker:We're adding about five per month.
Speaker:It's all about community.
Speaker:People want community.
Speaker:People need community, and so he showed me that with fireside.
Speaker:It's create a community.
Speaker:So we call ourselves fire starters.
Speaker:Um, uh,
Speaker:Ever wondered how an RV can become more than just a vacation getaway.
Speaker:Meet Gar Russell, founder and CEO of Fireside RV Rental.
Speaker:Starting as a new RV owner himself, Gar transformed his personal
Speaker:challenge into a groundbreaking business, creating the nation's
Speaker:first RV rental management company.
Speaker:Having lived in an RV for over six years, myself, most people know that I'm
Speaker:coming to you now from my RV, Theo, I'm particularly excited to discover how Gar
Speaker:has driven the RV rental industry forward.
Speaker:Join us as we explore his journey from personal hardships to entrepreneurial
Speaker:triumph, Gar, welcome to seek, go
Speaker:Hey Tim, great to chat with you and hi Mr.
Speaker:Theo.
Speaker:Yeah, we we are in Theo.
Speaker:I don't, do most people name their RVs?
Speaker:You know, we started doing that with our rentals and we found
Speaker:that it really helps our renters.
Speaker:It helps us to keep our fleet straight.
Speaker:It helps our renters to kind of connect with the unit and I named my
Speaker:RV the M3, the mobile memory maker.
Speaker:We're glorying it
Speaker:Gloria and I will have a faith discussion about things is, uh, we just finished up
Speaker:and, and Theopolis or Theo or theology, of course, is basically the root word for
Speaker:being in God or friend of God, et cetera.
Speaker:And so we said, you know what, we're just going to be in God.
Speaker:At all times, that's our home, our office So, so welcome to Theo
Speaker:that are, uh, listening in here.
Speaker:So, hey, before we get going too far though, Gar, I want to kind of
Speaker:give my First off is either an easy softball question or it's a tough one.
Speaker:So I'm gonna give you a choice Which one do you want to answer first?
Speaker:What do you do?
Speaker:Or who are you?
Speaker:I definitely got to go with the who are you?
Speaker:answer it.
Speaker:Who are you
Speaker:you know, that's one thing that the Lord convicted me of a couple years ago as
Speaker:I was putting so much weight in what I do, especially as an entrepreneur,
Speaker:I was really defining myself.
Speaker:By my success.
Speaker:And you know, I would always say build scale and sell.
Speaker:That's the model.
Speaker:That's what I do.
Speaker:and then finally God slapped me upside the head and he said, why
Speaker:do you wanna keep starting over?
Speaker:All you're doing is building, scaling and selling to prove to yourself and
Speaker:the world how awesome you think you are.
Speaker:and that's when really, he just took me on this identity journey.
Speaker:Of who I am, right?
Speaker:And so, that's why I definitely got to pick that question because, man,
Speaker:I am a son of the Most High God.
Speaker:And, when we know that all, everything flows out of that, that it's in Him that
Speaker:we live and breathe and have our being, then man, everything else is, is set up
Speaker:in much more proper manner because we're operating out of we are as a child of God.
Speaker:So yeah, that's who I am.
Speaker:I'm a child of the King, man.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then everything flows out of that, right?
Speaker:Because then it's, now that I know that, then I can say, okay, well, since
Speaker:I'm a child of the King, all right, King, what do you got for me to do?
Speaker:What's my purpose?
Speaker:And then he can show me, okay, well, this is what you do.
Speaker:And like we teach our kids in our homeschooling, it's to
Speaker:know God and make him known.
Speaker:And I could go on and on and on.
Speaker:So I'll leave that as my answer
Speaker:right there.
Speaker:So the cool thing, I know there's people, a lot of people listen to the audio,
Speaker:there's people that are going to be watching this video, you're wearing a
Speaker:shirt that says definiteness of purpose.
Speaker:Does that tie into who you are?
Speaker:yeah, I grabbed this out of a Napoleon Hill book that I read years ago.
Speaker:this was actually a clothing line.
Speaker:I started with it's called mission minded messages and it's just all messages on
Speaker:clothing It's funny because I started this I don't know how many months ago
Speaker:and I just had my first sale last night.
Speaker:I was telling my kids I just sold a hat online you know And it's funny because
Speaker:the hat that I sold is a hat that says, Hey, y'all on it, you know, being down
Speaker:in the south now, everyone says y'all.
Speaker:So the first hat I sold out of all my clothing was like the one that
Speaker:had the least amount of mission behind or purpose behind the
Speaker:words.
Speaker:But
Speaker:Well, that.
Speaker:to say,
Speaker:Yeah, that might tell us something about where culture is and where people
Speaker:are that they, maybe not everyone is into the definiteness of purpose
Speaker:and identity and things like that.
Speaker:But I want to, I think it's so valuable to kind of have this
Speaker:discussion before we go into business and some of your entrepreneurial
Speaker:and your leadership journey and how you define success things like that.
Speaker:And Gar, it's, you mentioned the word identity.
Speaker:Which, when I hear that word, it's like bells go off in my head, because
Speaker:I've recognized in myself that I've probably carried some of that
Speaker:what you do pride for many years.
Speaker:And what's interesting, and we don't need to go over my story, we're talking your
Speaker:story today, is that I really do believe that Lord, We'll strip all that away.
Speaker:Either we will take it away or it will be stripped away.
Speaker:pride?
Speaker:I mean, do you do you have a little bit of a, I don't know.
Speaker:Do you notice I don't, I'll say your flesh or something, doing something when people
Speaker:ask you about being an entrepreneur or business owner, are there some things
Speaker:that well up in you that you recognize may not be super healthy at times?
Speaker:yeah, you know, that's actually the biggest area of my life where
Speaker:the Lord's working on me right now.
Speaker:It's not so much in business, but it's more in my walk with the Lord, I'm very
Speaker:big into, I love to pray for people.
Speaker:I love to see God touch people and heal them.
Speaker:And I love to see the gifts of the spirit flow and just the power of the Lord move.
Speaker:it's very easy to step into pride when the Lord uses you on something like that.
Speaker:You know, you walk up and pray for somebody and they feel God's power
Speaker:or God heals them in that moment.
Speaker:and the Lord just had us move churches several months ago, and we were
Speaker:very well settled in this church.
Speaker:We were right across the aisle from Pastor.
Speaker:were and during prayer time, we knew that people wanted to pray with my wife and
Speaker:I because they knew that we knew how to.
Speaker:claim the scriptures.
Speaker:So anyway, the Lord's been taking me through this process at our new church
Speaker:Where I'm basically, I'm nobody now.
Speaker:I'm all that, you know, credentials and all the Whatever you call it.
Speaker:It was stripped away.
Speaker:And so it's even at my Ben's Bible study now It's like I'm just waiting for the
Speaker:Lord to Tell me when to share something instead of me getting excited that
Speaker:somebody said something and I'm like, oh man I know a scripture I could share
Speaker:that I really Impress the group, it's been a really stripping season for me
Speaker:the last Maybe three months since we've been at this new church and even for my
Speaker:wife, you know, both of us It's been very interesting the lord is just keeps telling
Speaker:me You just serve and do what you're supposed to do And don't try to promote
Speaker:yourself I'm a salesman I mean at the end of the day if you're an entrepreneur
Speaker:Entrepreneurs, they can sell we can market we can close we can do all the things
Speaker:but then not doing that inside the church walls just going in and just serving
Speaker:people And even the people were inviting over After sunday service like the god
Speaker:god's been showing me like hey, why did you pick that person to invite over?
Speaker:Why don't you invite that single mom over with their kids?
Speaker:You know, and it's like, you're right, Lord.
Speaker:I think that's good.
Speaker:It's interesting.
Speaker:That's been part of my journey for a while back.
Speaker:The Lord told me he wanted me to share and serve instead of sell.
Speaker:And he, instead of trying to impress people, which is part of what's baked into
Speaker:my flesh, I just want to impress and I have this desire for significance and be.
Speaker:He said, I'd really like for you to inspire.
Speaker:And he said, to do that, you've got to all that.
Speaker:You know, there, there's an example three of two or three of the disciples arguing
Speaker:over who's going to be the greatest.
Speaker:And, and it kind reminds me of kind of this And you know what, I think it's
Speaker:easy for entrepreneurs, business owners, people like that to slip into that.
Speaker:Would you agree?
Speaker:So it really is, especially, when you're an entrepreneur, you're
Speaker:typically just a natural leader.
Speaker:And what I found is a kingdom driven entrepreneur usually has
Speaker:the gift of giving, because they understand that God made you to be
Speaker:an entrepreneur, to make money, to sow into the kingdom and build it.
Speaker:there's so many opportunities to step into pride.
Speaker:Or just to simply, let it be known the need that you just met or
Speaker:the person that you just blessed or the seed that you just sowed.
Speaker:And it's been a very interesting, last several months for us.
Speaker:but glory to God, that's the next step.
Speaker:You know, that's the next step in sanctification for me and my
Speaker:journey.
Speaker:And
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:that to
Speaker:thinking, thinking back, I want to get to your story.
Speaker:I just finished reading my wheel estate uh, your book, you wrote from lawnmowers
Speaker:to RVs, my entrepreneurial journey filled with faith failures and fun times.
Speaker:It was a good It wasn't, it was a it was, it was a good read.
Speaker:So obviously like most.
Speaker:We'll call it entrepreneurs.
Speaker:You've had a lot of ups and uh, so why don't we, especially in light of we're
Speaker:talking identity, we're talking about the Lord doing some work with you and just
Speaker:in the last few months, which I back up.
Speaker:Tell me some of the high points and low points of Gar's journey, the things
Speaker:you've been on, some things that you look back on and go, you know, That
Speaker:was significant for who I am today.
Speaker:I think everything is, but what are some things that you
Speaker:like know they were impactful?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The most recent, that the Lord walked me through is, was alcohol.
Speaker:it was giving up alcohol.
Speaker:It, it had been, alcoholism, runs very heavy in my family,
Speaker:not so much on my wife's side.
Speaker:and, and that kind of played into it as far as, you know, justifying drinking.
Speaker:But COVID hit and when COVID hit and, uh, we weren't able to be as social
Speaker:as we wanted to be, my wife and I found that we started drinking a lot.
Speaker:the Lord convicted me of that and it was, we quit drinking.
Speaker:It was a year and a half ago, March, maybe like a year and eight
Speaker:months ago now or so, give or take.
Speaker:and, just, I didn't realize how much of a hold it had on
Speaker:me until the Lord showed me.
Speaker:And I was actually listening to Tony Robbins, and he was talking about
Speaker:change and the reason why people do and don't change is pain like pain
Speaker:is the ultimate motivator in life.
Speaker:We won't make a change until it's too painful to stay in the current situation.
Speaker:he said, a good way to do that is to just simply.
Speaker:up the pain to where our brain can make the decision to change.
Speaker:So I'm sitting there one day, my wife and I were arguing about something, and
Speaker:it was probably because I was drinking,
Speaker:It didn't go to an extreme.
Speaker:And that's part of what helped me justify it for so long, really was
Speaker:I'm, Hey, I'm not beating my wife.
Speaker:I'm not drunk driving, I'm not right, I'm not doing all these things.
Speaker:I'm, you know, I'm entrepreneur, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker:But then when, finally when I was like, okay, I want to be done with alcohol.
Speaker:I just sat down and I started writing out all these pain points, and the
Speaker:one that got me was, I have a teenage daughter, she's just about to turn 16,
Speaker:so she's got this social life now, right?
Speaker:And that's part of the reason why we stopped full time RVing, it's like,
Speaker:okay, we gotta settle down for a couple years, let my daughter have somewhat
Speaker:of a normal life until she goes off.
Speaker:to YWAM.
Speaker:She's going off to missionary training school here in the following September.
Speaker:And, the thing that I wrote down was, if my daughter was to be in a situation
Speaker:where she felt uncomfortable and she called me to come get her, I wouldn't
Speaker:be able to do that because I was drunk.
Speaker:And so in an instant, I was able to give up alcohol.
Speaker:I gave that up, but then the Lord started showing us all the things
Speaker:that I was doing while I was drinking, became very passive in my business.
Speaker:I actually had a multiple seven figure real estate portfolio that I'd built up.
Speaker:That I'd actually built up and sold most of it, not even realizing what I was doing
Speaker:because I was just keeping everything afloat through COVID and all that stuff.
Speaker:And, Lord opened my eyes to realize.
Speaker:you're literally selling off.
Speaker:That wasn't my retirement portfolio.
Speaker:You're selling off your retirement portfolio to keep everything
Speaker:feel like it's still, you know, moving along just fine.
Speaker:And so man, the Lord just brought me through this beautiful process
Speaker:in that of, in hindsight, he showed me like, Hey, you, you just broke
Speaker:alcoholism off your family bloodline.
Speaker:You know, just the benefits outside of I can go pick up
Speaker:my daughter if she needs me.
Speaker:Me and my boy are standing outside grilling one day and he's like, dad, I'm
Speaker:going to have a beer with you someday.
Speaker:And I said, well, no, but he remembered me and mom quit drinking.
Speaker:He's like.
Speaker:Dad, I'm going to have a coke with you someday.
Speaker:And God showed me right then how quickly we can literally change the
Speaker:future for the generations ahead of us.
Speaker:So that's one of the most recent things that the Lord brought me through,
Speaker:which was just so, so beautiful.
Speaker:And there's so many things that came out of it that I
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What's interesting about that.
Speaker:Would you say, I mean, typically someone who has what we'll call
Speaker:that entrepreneurial gene, they're usually sometimes, not always, but
Speaker:they're usually have a pretty hard.
Speaker:work ethic, you know, pretty strong.
Speaker:I'm guessing that you do.
Speaker:They also are quick to throw themselves into things when they do things,
Speaker:they go all but but I have found that they also have what, what many
Speaker:would consider an addictive nature.
Speaker:But would would you say that in general and i'm not saying this is a negative yet
Speaker:I think it can be but would you say in general you've got an addictive nature
Speaker:that when you latch on to something?
Speaker:It's somewhat addictive.
Speaker:Is that accurate
Speaker:Yeah, very much so.
Speaker:I would say it's almost like we teach our kids always about
Speaker:the flesh and the spirit.
Speaker:You know, and okay, is this my flesh?
Speaker:Is this my spirit?
Speaker:And you talk about being like all in and being addictive, it's like two in
Speaker:the same, but they're different, right?
Speaker:and I do agree with that.
Speaker:Yeah, that addictive nature where, even if it's something that's good, right?
Speaker:Like working on my business is good, but when I'm working on my
Speaker:business 18 hours a day and I'm neglecting my family, that's not good.
Speaker:There's no balance there, you know?
Speaker:So I definitely would agree with that statement that,
Speaker:So
Speaker:nature.
Speaker:or the all in personality is part of what makes an entrepreneur
Speaker:who they are and realizing, okay, what's what side am I on right now?
Speaker:The all in or the addictive?
Speaker:yeah, and one of the things I noticed about myself and this was broken for
Speaker:me and back in 07 08 when the real estate market crashed was that I,
Speaker:I wasn't, I'm not really addicted to substance or anything like that.
Speaker:I was addicted to more.
Speaker:And so as a business person, as an entrepreneur, there isn't a
Speaker:place that you ever arrive at.
Speaker:It's just, you're always craving.
Speaker:And wanting more.
Speaker:So my journey has been attempting to be content and satisfied,
Speaker:which is not my nature.
Speaker:so I mean, do you notice that you're around a lot of business
Speaker:people, entrepreneurs, and you might be that way too.
Speaker:I mean, what's, when I say the addiction to more, what comes to your mind?
Speaker:Yeah, very much.
Speaker:So, you know, I feel like it's honestly been about the last year
Speaker:that I've started to step out of them.
Speaker:more thinking more of the purpose and the legacy.
Speaker:And as an entrepreneur too, right, we're always seeing opportunities.
Speaker:There's always, and, and as well, I think about Ben that helps sell our franchises.
Speaker:You know, he's 12, 13 years younger than me.
Speaker:He's on fire business throwing all these and this and that.
Speaker:And he like, man, guards always it's because, Napolean this, in his book,
Speaker:he talks about when she h to 60.
Speaker:It's almost like you hit your genius years where you, you start to get a
Speaker:little more methodical, you're not trying to prove everything to everyone.
Speaker:You're not jumping on every opportunity that comes your way.
Speaker:And, I literally had 2 emails this morning for investment opportunities.
Speaker:And I said, let me, let me think about it for a little, let me pray about it for
Speaker:a little, because it's, I'm not trying to prove anything to the world anymore.
Speaker:Uh, and it's not all about money really.
Speaker:And you know, my definiteness of purpose, uh, which goes back to, it's really, it's
Speaker:my children is my main, my main calling is homeschooling my children, raising them
Speaker:to be like, we already know three of our four kids, like what their calling is.
Speaker:already being prepared for that.
Speaker:And that's where my focus is.
Speaker:And it's very easy though, when we're in the grind of the day and the kids
Speaker:are stressing you out and they're not paying attention during school to say,
Speaker:man, I could just go in my office and work and hear from all my franchisees
Speaker:or people who, know, Gar, you're great.
Speaker:You're this or that.
Speaker:Instead of being in the grind, in the trenches, really planting seeds for a
Speaker:lot of things that I'm not going to see.
Speaker:To come to fruition, you know, for my children and their children.
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:I want to talk about the homeschooling, but I don't need, before we get too far
Speaker:away from your, the addiction and what you mentioned with COVID, I, I believe,
Speaker:and we're depending on how you're counting, we're recording this to put
Speaker:a timestamp on in November ish of 2024.
Speaker:People may be listening into it before the end of the year,
Speaker:2024, maybe even early 2025, but.
Speaker:Is there anything else?
Speaker:I believe I actually, my wife and I realized that we were probably
Speaker:suffering from some depression during the COVID period of time.
Speaker:And we, we would like to think, I'm sure you and your wife are this way, you know,
Speaker:you're, you have a strong faith about you that the Lord is with you and, you know.
Speaker:You know, we were seeking the Lord during that time, but we
Speaker:were probably in a depression, you know, we, we didn't think about it.
Speaker:We probably drank more than we should have during that time too.
Speaker:I never, you know, identified it or anything like that, but, uh, you know,
Speaker:that was probably the case, but I think we were going through a lot of stuff.
Speaker:And I think a lot of leaders, a lot of people were anything that the Holy
Speaker:Spirit has for you to just share with people that might still be in a bit of a.
Speaker:Uh, funk or malaise or, you know, they haven't come out of
Speaker:it, gotten their groove back.
Speaker:I can't think of any other colloquialisms to use, uh, because I think COVID
Speaker:did a number on culture and, and also anything you want to say to
Speaker:someone who might still be struggling?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, it, it really did.
Speaker:And it really has.
Speaker:And there's so many people that are still being affected that literally their whole
Speaker:lifestyle has changed and they don't even, don't know to tie it back to COVID.
Speaker:Because honestly, they're not even taking the time to search their heart and say,
Speaker:okay, why am I at where I'm at today?
Speaker:What happened?
Speaker:You know, and it made me think of a book that helped me realize it.
Speaker:I read this book called resilient by John Eldridge, I'm reading through the book.
Speaker:And I'm sitting there.
Speaker:I can remember it perfectly.
Speaker:I I can remember so perfect right now.
Speaker:It chokes me up like I'm at, right.
Speaker:Cause us guys, we're not as in touch with our emotions as our, as our wives are.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's just, we're just not, we don't, don't explore our emotions
Speaker:as much as our, our wives do.
Speaker:And I'm sitting at a breakfast restaurant with her and I'm telling her about
Speaker:this book that I'm reading and then I just start bawling, like it's just
Speaker:something finally, the domino finally tipped over my head I am depressed.
Speaker:I am hopeless.
Speaker:Like, oh, I'm having all these feelings.
Speaker:And it just finally all came flooding out and, uh, and shocked my wife a
Speaker:little bit because it literally was
Speaker:just a floodgate just
Speaker:are, are you a, are you a crier or a weeper or probably like me as
Speaker:like, if my kids ever see a motion, they go, what's going on, dad?
Speaker:I'm, that's not typical for me.
Speaker:Is that typical for you?
Speaker:So I am the odd duck when it comes to that.
Speaker:I, one of my, on my mantra, one of my things that I talk about that I repeat
Speaker:to myself daily is I like to be moved by emotions to the point of tears once a day.
Speaker:Okay, so I'm just weird like that.
Speaker:Like I just want to experience life so fully that you know I look up at
Speaker:the sunrise and it brings me to a tear or my daughter says something
Speaker:about something It brings me a tear and so yeah Um, yeah, I I cry a lot.
Speaker:I cry probably I do I really do but but as far as I Identifying emotions and what
Speaker:I was going through that whole process like that for me I took this book and
Speaker:as i'm reading it, and even just uh, you know Man, I've got a dear brother in
Speaker:the Lord of mine that still is not back in church, it's weekly that him and I
Speaker:are communicating, and I'm like, dude, it's not even about you at this point.
Speaker:Like, you have a gift to minister to men.
Speaker:There's men that are missing out.
Speaker:the other day I'm reading in Hebrews 10, 25, where it talks
Speaker:about, you know, do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together.
Speaker:And everybody knows that part of the scripture, but actually it goes on.
Speaker:It's like, you know, several sentences.
Speaker:And it says, even so more as the day appears in and I realize that like
Speaker:I'm hungry and I used to think, man, there's so many holy huddles out there.
Speaker:Like, those Christians get together way too much.
Speaker:Like, we've got to actually go out and do the work in the ministry, but
Speaker:God's been showing me an important part is actually, we need to be getting
Speaker:together even more as the day appears and man, COVID has done such a great
Speaker:job of separating Christians, it is.
Speaker:Of getting people to social media services.
Speaker:I just thought of that, that free social media services and, and, and going
Speaker:to church online and this and that.
Speaker:And so, yeah, I, I share that often.
Speaker:If you are not in fellowship, uh, if you know that you're not where you were.
Speaker:Pre 2020.
Speaker:It's time to get quiet, get with the Lord and say, Holy
Speaker:Spirit, where did this go wrong?
Speaker:What lie am I believing?
Speaker:What's going on?
Speaker:man, you know, just like, uh, just like us as men when we're when our wives
Speaker:are, I call it empty in the teapot when the wife is empty in the teapot.
Speaker:And you have all the answers, but they just want to empty the teapot.
Speaker:They don't want your answer.
Speaker:They want their girlfriend to tell them the answer the next day, and then you get
Speaker:to say, Honey, I told you that yesterday.
Speaker:Holy Spirit is just right there waiting tell you the lie that you believed,
Speaker:the moment where it all changed.
Speaker:And to step back, Christine Cain, if you ever heard of Christine
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Out of Australia.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I
Speaker:yeah, she did a message six, eight months ago about not looking back.
Speaker:And it was about lot in his family and how lots of wife look back.
Speaker:Um, and she did, and it became a whole Bible study and series
Speaker:and book and everything.
Speaker:And it was about COVID and it just.
Speaker:Did a phenomenal job.
Speaker:Google that for those of y'all who feel like you're, I call it your COVID
Speaker:comeback for those y'all who feel like you haven't made your COVID come back
Speaker:yet, Google that message and listen to it.
Speaker:And I believe that'll be to helping you step into back
Speaker:into life.
Speaker:think the foundation of what I recognize and I was like, you know,
Speaker:I was crying out to the Lord and saying, Lord, what's going on?
Speaker:And all that.
Speaker:I, I, I believe what was revealed to me, and I think everybody's got a personal
Speaker:journey, was that I put too much stock, too much faith, too much belief in
Speaker:what I'm going to call the Babylonian system instead of the kingdom of God.
Speaker:And, you know, I would say, Oh yeah, I'm part of the kingdom of God.
Speaker:I'd done a long study when I was at a Bible school on kingdom of God.
Speaker:So I knew all about it.
Speaker:But I wasn't abiding in it.
Speaker:I was still hanging out in Babylon.
Speaker:And so when you look around and you see that system crumbling,
Speaker:you go, wait, what's going on?
Speaker:And you realize it was more a part of you than you really believe.
Speaker:Because one of the things we have as Christians is that we
Speaker:still do have it pretty good.
Speaker:You know, we'll, we'll yell, We're being persecuted or prosecuted,
Speaker:whatever we want to say, but I mean, come on, we still have it pretty good.
Speaker:We can jump on and share our faith and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:So, uh, that was for me.
Speaker:I needed to realize I had too much Babylon in me and I needed to be,
Speaker:you know, kingdom of God where, where I know I've got my citizenship.
Speaker:I just wasn't really operating out of that.
Speaker:So Well, one thing Gar and, and I don't know, Where all this story
Speaker:goes, but I think a lot of people during that time realized that they
Speaker:wanted to homeschool and do some different things with their kids.
Speaker:Uh, it sounds to me like y'all may have been doing that before COVID
Speaker:or went to, tell me a little bit about your homeschool journey.
Speaker:Yeah, we, we've been homeschooling since the beginning, uh, that something
Speaker:I told my wife when we were dating, I want to homeschool, I want five kids.
Speaker:else, I think I said, I want to travel, you know?
Speaker:And so we, we just got our kid, quote unquote, a young girl.
Speaker:That's my daughter's friend that we just been loving on.
Speaker:And that's part of the reason the Lord has showed us why we moved churches.
Speaker:Was literally we left to go get the one and I was sure was sharing this yesterday.
Speaker:Um, with our kids don't go to our old church for kids
Speaker:university Wednesday nights.
Speaker:And then our older kids go to the new church and and I'll share this with
Speaker:1 of the sisters there about that.
Speaker:And I said, man, God showed us why he had us move in and just.
Speaker:It's beautiful, but yeah, we've been homeschooling since the beginning.
Speaker:We've, we love homeschooling.
Speaker:Uh, we have a really unique homeschool schedule for our kids.
Speaker:Just fun stuff.
Speaker:A lot of reading the word, writing the word, memorizing the word we
Speaker:serve at food drives, uh, together.
Speaker:We just, just fun stuff.
Speaker:You know, the biggest thing for me that I always say with homeschooling is.
Speaker:I care more about my kid's heart than, than their head knowledge, know?
Speaker:So once they get to a certain level in math, then I teach them how to
Speaker:use a calculator because that's what they're going to do in the room.
Speaker:You know, once I get to it and I want them to fall in love with reading,
Speaker:you know, if I can get them to fall in love with reading and just the quest
Speaker:for learning and, and, and seeing God and everything, you know, then
Speaker:I've done my job, uh, as a homeschool
Speaker:parent.
Speaker:Yeah, it says in the Word that we're to train up our children as they
Speaker:should go, I think in Proverbs.
Speaker:And a lot of people have taken that to mean we're supposed to correct
Speaker:them and spank them and all that.
Speaker:I actually think we're just supposed to point them to the Lord.
Speaker:We're supposed to get them in the place where they're walking out their
Speaker:journey, their assignment, whatever term we want to use in God's kingdom.
Speaker:And we homeschooled our kids.
Speaker:they're they're in their thirties now.
Speaker:And uh, we've got grandkids with our daughter and And I think she, she looks
Speaker:like she's going to be homeschooling them.
Speaker:And I believe, you know, and we don't, I don't necessarily want to get political
Speaker:here, but with a new administration that was just elected, I, I think
Speaker:we're about to see a massive boom in the homeschool because it's going
Speaker:to be not ostracized as much, it's probably going to be, um, elevated.
Speaker:And, um, you know, kind of like I asked you earlier, what, what, uh,
Speaker:what thoughts, advice do you have for someone who's wondering about it?
Speaker:They might be fearful of it.
Speaker:I remember when we first started, we were afraid we might mess our kids up.
Speaker:This was back in the nineties, by the way, a long time ago.
Speaker:And, uh, and we said, man, I hope we don't mess our kids up.
Speaker:We were both products of public school and, but it was public school in the
Speaker:seventies, which was much different.
Speaker:And go, are we, we, we homeschooled for a year or so.
Speaker:And then they went to a private Christian school and we realized
Speaker:how far ahead they were and we were like going, no, we're good.
Speaker:We're okay.
Speaker:We we're, we're good here.
Speaker:Homeschooling.
Speaker:But any.
Speaker:Anything encouraging that, uh, you could give to people that are considering it or
Speaker:struggling with it, uh, and, but they know they need to, uh, consider homeschooling.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we actually tried that with our 15 year old.
Speaker:She went to private Christian school for about nine weeks and,
Speaker:uh, several of the classes, she was not doing that best Bible class.
Speaker:She was the best kid in the class.
Speaker:And then just through a couple of situations, no, we're
Speaker:doing, we're doing great.
Speaker:And we brought her back home, but you know, I w I would encourage somebody
Speaker:that's considering homeschooling.
Speaker:The same was.
Speaker:is I would encourage somebody that's considering starting a franchise with us
Speaker:a lot of the, a lot of the families that come on and join the fireside family,
Speaker:working at full time nine to five.
Speaker:They know they were called into entrepreneurship, but they
Speaker:don't know how it'll all work.
Speaker:You know, cause starting a business is scary.
Speaker:Um, and, and when I have my phone call with them, we always end
Speaker:it by praying that the peace of God that passes understanding.
Speaker:would guard their heart and mind.
Speaker:And so I tell the potential franchisees that I said, Hey, if you have God's
Speaker:peace, but you don't understand how it's going to work, then perfect.
Speaker:You're lining up with the scriptures, the peace that passes understanding.
Speaker:So once you have God's peace, then it switches over to, okay, God, we have your
Speaker:peace that we're supposed to do this.
Speaker:So that's been determined and now you move into the faith over
Speaker:fear portion of the process.
Speaker:I call it where you step out in faith Because then all the
Speaker:fears start to creep in right?
Speaker:Well, what if we mess our kids up like you said and I tell people gonna mess
Speaker:your kids up You're already messing.
Speaker:You don't think you're messing them up already.
Speaker:We're going to mess our kids up, right?
Speaker:But praise God That the Lord is going to show them through their journey
Speaker:where they got messed up and he's going to bring them healing and
Speaker:restoration and help them to be that much better of a parent that we are.
Speaker:So get over that fear, because that fear is going to come true.
Speaker:You will mess your kids up, you know, and then really, it's
Speaker:just taking that step of faith.
Speaker:And, uh, I love that scripture where faith is being certain of what you hope
Speaker:for and sure of what you do not see.
Speaker:And if you hope for a child that's head over heels in love with the
Speaker:Lord and walking out there, God given purpose, and is prepared to do that,
Speaker:no education system outside of you is going to prepare them better.
Speaker:And why?
Speaker:Because.
Speaker:Your child learns in a specific way.
Speaker:Like we have two kids, children who are dyslexic, nobody is going
Speaker:to teach our child better than us.
Speaker:Nobody's going to know when it's time to take a break and walk away.
Speaker:and the thing I love about this with parenting, I'm up this book
Speaker:right now called loving your kids on purpose by Danny silk.
Speaker:Uh, and, and it talks all about heart connection and when you homeschool your
Speaker:kids and you have that heart connection with them, the other stuff is going
Speaker:to work itself out because it's very rare for a child to go into a public
Speaker:school setting or any other school setting and get a heart connection.
Speaker:With one, much less 10 different teachers that they're assigned to.
Speaker:It's just, it's not going to happen.
Speaker:No, one's going to steward your child's heart better than you are
Speaker:when you have their heart, the education piece that comes along easy,
Speaker:I think a big thing for us is that we just wanted to be responsible for our children.
Speaker:Children's growth for their challenges versus, and this sounds harsh.
Speaker:If someone's got their kids in a school system, I don't mean this
Speaker:harsh, but turning your kids over and letting someone else raise them.
Speaker:And Gar, this fits in real with the business and entrepreneur, especially
Speaker:your franchisees that you brought up.
Speaker:We had our own business.
Speaker:This was in the mid nineties.
Speaker:And what we realized was that our kind of rut.
Speaker:Schedule was the kids going to school.
Speaker:I mean, you know, they were, you know, 6 a.
Speaker:m.
Speaker:is when it kind of got started our day and, you know, 7 a.
Speaker:m.
Speaker:They were kind of either getting on the bus or getting to school.
Speaker:And, and then 3 p.
Speaker:m.
Speaker:sometimes later they would come in.
Speaker:And even at a young age, they were bringing homework home and we're
Speaker:going, what are they doing all day?
Speaker:What are they, I mean, this is like a grind for us.
Speaker:And so we realized it was kind of freeing up our, our, our, our time,
Speaker:which is really important for.
Speaker:I believe business, business people.
Speaker:And also we just realized we were starting to live a different
Speaker:life than the masses were.
Speaker:And at some point along the way, you, um, I think your story goes,
Speaker:you got an RV, you, you, your wife wasn't super excited about it.
Speaker:And then also, but then later you actually lived and traveled in an RV.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Tell me about that because I believe it leads into the foundation.
Speaker:I believe it's God leading you into having an RV rental business now franchised with
Speaker:54, I think 50 plus franchisees all over.
Speaker:So let's start easing into that story.
Speaker:you know, that's the God turning pain into purpose.
Speaker:Right from homeschooling, the pain of saying, Hey, what would my children look
Speaker:like if I just handed them over or, and that's the same scenario here, how my
Speaker:first business started and then how this business started as well was literally,
Speaker:yeah, I'd bought my wife a camper for a 10 year wedding anniversary, went camping,
Speaker:she was miserable, she said she was going home in her defense, we had a toddler and
Speaker:one on the way was doing like two months.
Speaker:And, uh, I threw it up on Craigslist for rent.
Speaker:I thought, man, I owned real estate and, you know, and I
Speaker:thought, Oh, throw it for rent.
Speaker:So I threw it up for rent and within a couple of hours I'm
Speaker:getting people that want to book it.
Speaker:And so instantly the light bulb came on, you know, and, uh, I, one thing to the
Speaker:next, I started reaching out to friends and family and, Hey, I'm renting my RV.
Speaker:You want me to rent yours for you?
Speaker:And this and that, it was, uh, it was the Lord taking pain
Speaker:and turning it into purpose.
Speaker:That's really been.
Speaker:My entrepreneurial journey, I had a credit counseling company that I owned for over a
Speaker:decade, that was the pain of having to fix up my credit after I gave my life to the
Speaker:Lord, uh, and I had all this, you know, debt and credit issues and everything,
Speaker:fixed up my credit, turned into me, got fired from my job for sharing my faith.
Speaker:started a credit counseling company and then did that for over a decade and it's
Speaker:just it's so cool How uh, I guess to my quitting of drinking story, right?
Speaker:Pain is the ultimate motivator
Speaker:I do think God.
Speaker:I don't know that he brings hardships on us, but when they occur, he's
Speaker:going to use them for his benefit.
Speaker:That might be the way I'd like to word it.
Speaker:And, uh, so, uh, so were you a, like an RVer growing up?
Speaker:I mean, were you an outdoorsy guy?
Speaker:See, because my wife and I, we have been in Bible school for a few years.
Speaker:And when we finished up, we'd been traveling before that.
Speaker:My wife said, I think she'd been praying.
Speaker:She says, I think.
Speaker:Think we're supposed to travel again, but I believe we're supposed to get an RV.
Speaker:Well, the joke is I grew up kind of in and around the city in Atlanta, Gar.
Speaker:I couldn't even spell RV.
Speaker:Like I don't even know anything about it.
Speaker:And so, you know, you know how this works out a month or two later, we bought
Speaker:one sight unseen, not far from you down there in Sarasota, Florida, went and
Speaker:picked it up and gutted the inside.
Speaker:I showed it to you here before we got started.
Speaker:And so it's been our home now for six years.
Speaker:Um, you know, this kind of way those stories get, but were you a
Speaker:camper outdoorsy guy growing up?
Speaker:You know, I really wasn't didn't have my first rv Well my wife and I first got
Speaker:married we went camping with some friends that had a camper and we slept in a tent
Speaker:And you know and it rained that night.
Speaker:So you only need to experience that once to know.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I'm not definitely not a tenter You And then we bought this
Speaker:like class C, super old class C.
Speaker:I think we paid like 5, 000 bucks for it.
Speaker:then that started our camping journey.
Speaker:And yeah, we just fell in love with it.
Speaker:We just, my boy Noah, uh, yesterday was just saying, dad, why don't we
Speaker:hit in the road because we've been in this house for two years now
Speaker:and, uh, he's, they're ready to go.
Speaker:They're ready to get back
Speaker:on the road.
Speaker:How long were you living in an RV?
Speaker:Give me, give me a little bit of the RV life,
Speaker:About five years.
Speaker:We kind of cheated though, being that we have an RV rental company.
Speaker:You know, we had an RV sitting up on a lake in Michigan.
Speaker:Then we had an RV sitting at this ranch down here in Florida,
Speaker:like a big, huge 42DL park model.
Speaker:And then we'd get in an RV and drive between the two and, you know, and this
Speaker:and that, maybe we'd go stay at an Airbnb.
Speaker:So, so we weren't the true, you know, hardcore full timers, uh, you know, but
Speaker:but people, people get on, you know, you go to some of these, uh, Facebook groups,
Speaker:full time RVing and stuff like that.
Speaker:People sometimes get ticked if like we're in Arizona right now.
Speaker:And you know what, we'll probably hang out here until the weather
Speaker:starts getting warmer, and then we'll migrate north and we might stay in
Speaker:the Black Hills for a few months.
Speaker:So we're not like burning up the road.
Speaker:We're not.
Speaker:I don't like, you know, I see, see somebody come in, unpack the
Speaker:grills out, everything like that.
Speaker:And then I'm like, Oh, they look like they're going to stick
Speaker:around for a while, no guard.
Speaker:And then the next day they're packing it back up and they're on the road.
Speaker:I don't like that at all.
Speaker:So, but, um, So what'd you learn about yourself while y'all were RVing?
Speaker:What's something that you like go, you know what, this is
Speaker:something I like, or I don't like
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, we, I love adventure.
Speaker:I love the change of scenery.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then on the other side of that, we learned, okay, with
Speaker:homeschooling, like, we can't be packing up and unpacking every day.
Speaker:You know, we've got to set up somewhere for 5 days, 7
Speaker:days, uh, so on and so forth.
Speaker:And, uh, the first winter we went, we actually took my mother in law.
Speaker:So that was an adventure doing that.
Speaker:I think we took her the first winters maybe, and then she
Speaker:didn't get invited anymore.
Speaker:It got a little crowded, you know, but we did take her a couple summers
Speaker:ago up to Maine and around Maine.
Speaker:So that was fun.
Speaker:But yeah, we learned we, you know, we love people.
Speaker:We love exploring.
Speaker:We love, you know, just the conversations.
Speaker:The other side of that as well as we learned, Oh man, we got to watch out who
Speaker:our kids are talking to, you know, cause you're pulling into a campground and.
Speaker:oh, hey dad, what does this word mean?
Speaker:Or, you know.
Speaker:Why is that person wearing that, you know, um, so little shocks of
Speaker:life here and there, but for the most part, I mean, RVing and RVing
Speaker:community, it's just such great people, know, and yeah, it really is.
Speaker:what's a,
Speaker:said, I can't wait to
Speaker:get back on the road
Speaker:what's a,
Speaker:what's a cool spot you went to that you say, like, you know
Speaker:what, everybody needs to go here.
Speaker:Where, where would it be, man?
Speaker:Give us a good recommendation.
Speaker:Probably our top spot, um, Is La Jolla beach in California.
Speaker:Yeah, that was just and I don't even think we it's funny because most of
Speaker:the spots We planned to go like outside of the campgrounds like most of the oh
Speaker:We'll stop and see this and that like we never did that was my wife would plan
Speaker:out this great route and then I would do something totally opposite But La Jolla
Speaker:beach was just something we stumbled upon and there's the sea lions and all that.
Speaker:It's just right there It's super natural.
Speaker:There's no like and fences.
Speaker:And it was almost a little too natural because there's people from like, you
Speaker:know, overseas and they're like hanging, they're like climbing down onto the
Speaker:slippery rocks, trying to take a selfie with, you know, a sea lion and stuff.
Speaker:was just one of those moments.
Speaker:Uh, Joshua tree was amazing.
Speaker:Trying to think of this park we were at, it was my mother in
Speaker:law was in with the two littles.
Speaker:My wife and I were going to go with the two olders and hike up this mountain.
Speaker:And so we go hike up this mountain, we're standing at the top, and we're looking
Speaker:down at the one lane in one lane out.
Speaker:And all of a sudden I see this RV go by and say, oh, look, that
Speaker:RV, it looks just like our RV.
Speaker:It's.
Speaker:And then it goes by and I said that's weird.
Speaker:It has the same exact colored bike on the back That is crazy.
Speaker:And then all of a sudden it must have been completely god my phone rings.
Speaker:I have a signal all of a sudden It's my mother in law I had parked like in a
Speaker:tour bus Spot and they booted her out.
Speaker:So here's my mother in law driving the rv around the side of the mountain
Speaker:Going, hey, what do you want me to do?
Speaker:I don't I don't know what i'm doing right now And uh, so
Speaker:that was a fun memory that was
Speaker:made
Speaker:So the, the cool thing about an RV rental business like you've got, let's, let's,
Speaker:let's spend our last bit of time here.
Speaker:Let's, let's really dive into some business stuff here.
Speaker:The cool thing about the RV rental business, you know, we post some stuff
Speaker:and people were connected with, they know what we do and they, so many
Speaker:people love the thought of what we do.
Speaker:They love the thought of being able to travel, get in an RV and go.
Speaker:But it seems as if very few people actually take the step and do it.
Speaker:The thing I love about.
Speaker:RV rentals that you have is that you allow people to kind of try before you
Speaker:buy or at least to try it out and test it, you know, do things to, to get into,
Speaker:uh, get into an RV, go to the nearest national park around you or do something
Speaker:just to break their normal grind.
Speaker:And, uh, and I just have always thought that that is just
Speaker:something that everybody should do.
Speaker:Don't you agree?
Speaker:I mean, I'm feeding right into what your business is, but
Speaker:don't you agree with that?
Speaker:You know, I totally do from a several several different standpoints.
Speaker:One is just getting out and connecting with your family connecting with nature
Speaker:uh, the other standpoint is People will go buy an rv And then they realized, Oh man,
Speaker:this isn't even the floor plan we wanted.
Speaker:We actually wanted a drivable.
Speaker:This is too big.
Speaker:This is too small.
Speaker:the case is, actually how we end up with a lot of RVs in our man, in our fleet,
Speaker:because we're a management company.
Speaker:So, uh, we don't own any of the inventory.
Speaker:It's other people's RVs that we rent out for them on their behalf.
Speaker:man, you know, we literally get people with a couple hundred thousand dollar
Speaker:rv and they're like, hey, here's the keys We want to stay married.
Speaker:We took a road trip together It was the worst thing where you know, and we can't
Speaker:sell it because it was a zero down for especially during covid I mean heck you
Speaker:could buy an rv on a 20 30 year financing So yeah, I think that's great from several
Speaker:standpoints and when we first started the heart was really Helping other people
Speaker:connect with the family and outdoors.
Speaker:And then we realized, man, there's so many facets to it.
Speaker:And that's part of why I call it real estate because
Speaker:really it's a house on wheels.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So we're renting RVs to people that are going camping and going on road
Speaker:trips, we're also renting RVs to during COVID it was mobile quarantine units.
Speaker:It was mobile testing stations.
Speaker:It was quarantine units for power plants up in Michigan.
Speaker:it's for races and music festivals and equestrian events and.
Speaker:The hurricane, we have a bunch of RVs sitting in Asheville, North Carolina
Speaker:right now for temporary housing.
Speaker:You know, I mean, the list just goes on and on and on.
Speaker:It's, it's such a multifaceted purpose.
Speaker:Uh, but yeah.
Speaker:And especially today's, you know, uh, I don't know if they're, you
Speaker:call it millennials, like they want experiences over ownership.
Speaker:So man, what a way to do that, right?
Speaker:Like you think of it, it was, it was Airbnb, but now you can go on Toro
Speaker:and you can rent somebody's car.
Speaker:You can go on a website called Swim Lee.
Speaker:You can rent somebody's swimming pool.
Speaker:You can go rent somebody's yard for your dog to run around.
Speaker:why not rent somebody's RV so you can go experience RVing
Speaker:and not have the ownership?
Speaker:Yeah, I've, especially over the last 12, 14 years, have gotten so in the
Speaker:mindset, and it's also a spiritual thing.
Speaker:I don't think I have to own everything.
Speaker:It's not that important for me to be an owner.
Speaker:In fact, I'm more leaning towards, I'm really a steward over most of
Speaker:the things I have anyway, that just the name on the deed or title or
Speaker:anything like that is really not that critical and I would almost.
Speaker:Like to just steward things versus owning it.
Speaker:And I think, I think your model really feeds into that.
Speaker:So give me though, I know I read it in the book, uh, my wheel estate story
Speaker:here, but give me, give the audience just a brief, the get started story.
Speaker:It's like, okay, you, you had an RV, you obviously have done some, but at
Speaker:some point, and you had a, you have a background in real estate business,
Speaker:which I do think helps, we've got a background in real estate also at
Speaker:some point you said, hmm, and I know there's other companies out there that.
Speaker:own fleets and ran out like the cruise Americas and things like that.
Speaker:But, but, but you had a different thought.
Speaker:Tell me about that and how that came to be early on.
Speaker:And give me a timestamp.
Speaker:When was this?
Speaker:Yeah, it was 2016 is when we started, and really what it was, was with me having
Speaker:started skilled and sold businesses.
Speaker:of the things that God gifted me in is systems, processes,
Speaker:automation, finding the right person, putting them into a role.
Speaker:And so once my RV started renting and then I reached out to a couple of friends and
Speaker:they like, it was, it was on from there.
Speaker:I'm like, okay, so I need, I need, my documents.
Speaker:I need my website.
Speaker:And so I built all that up fairly quick.
Speaker:uh, and then it was test the model.
Speaker:So we were in some Facebook groups for this industry.
Speaker:So just like there's Airbnb for renting out your home.
Speaker:For RVs, there's RVshare.
Speaker:com, Outdoorsy.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:Those are the two major platforms.
Speaker:And so they had Facebook groups for the owners to communicate.
Speaker:So I was just giving value to the community, talking about what I'm
Speaker:doing, answering questions for people.
Speaker:I met Kim in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan.
Speaker:He's like, Hey Ed, why don't you start another branch?
Speaker:I'll start it for you.
Speaker:messaged Kim.
Speaker:I said, yeah, let's, let's give it a shot.
Speaker:I'll start it.
Speaker:You'll launch a branch.
Speaker:I won't charge anything and we'll just I'll kind of practice on you.
Speaker:we did that.
Speaker:Kim's still with us today.
Speaker:And then it went to, uh, just training others and showing others
Speaker:and it was a business in a box.
Speaker:Uh, well, back up a little bit.
Speaker:Then what happened is, so right, my wife is, Miserably pregnant.
Speaker:And that's how this all started.
Speaker:Hot going home.
Speaker:fast forward two months down the road, all of our kids are born by C section.
Speaker:we go to check into the hospital to have number four, Isabella,
Speaker:and we're used to the process now.
Speaker:Hour later, you're back in the room, you're settled in, and I'm saying this
Speaker:to justify what I'm about to say next.
Speaker:So we get settled back in the room.
Speaker:I kissed my wife on the head.
Speaker:I'm like, all right, love.
Speaker:I'll be right back.
Speaker:You'll be right back.
Speaker:where are you going?
Speaker:I'm like, well, remember when you left me at the campground?
Speaker:No, I didn't.
Speaker:I went to the RV dealership and I bought four RVs.
Speaker:That's where I was going.
Speaker:And literally after I did that, the Lord me on the side of the head
Speaker:and he said, other people's assets.
Speaker:And so, praise God, I listened and I started renting other people's
Speaker:RVs instead of buying a fleet.
Speaker:man, fast forward to COVID when a lot of my competitors went out of business
Speaker:because they had the payments and the insurance and the real estate, all the
Speaker:overhead, I didn't have that overhead.
Speaker:So literally within the handful of weeks where nobody knew what was happening, I
Speaker:had competitors going out of business.
Speaker:just sitting there.
Speaker:I laid off all my staff.
Speaker:Uh, just sitting there kind of waiting to see what happens next.
Speaker:And then I get a phone call consumers energy in Michigan.
Speaker:Hey, we need 72 RVs for mobile quarantine units for our electrical engineers.
Speaker:So I'm right back to work and one thing to the next.
Speaker:And then God told me after that, he said, you need to franchise now.
Speaker:And, uh, I fought that one for a little bit because that's a long,
Speaker:arduous process cost you six figures.
Speaker:I'm not, I'm a visionary.
Speaker:I'm not a details person.
Speaker:And, you know, so I, anyway, I did it.
Speaker:Uh, we walked through that, learned a lot of lessons about
Speaker:things not to do with franchising.
Speaker:And then once I came out of my COVID slumber there, my COVID comeback,
Speaker:when God shook me and told me, Hey, it's time to get serious.
Speaker:Uh, that's when fireside really took off.
Speaker:We went from 12 locations.
Speaker:two years ago to, I think we have under 60 now.
Speaker:We're adding about five per month.
Speaker:And it just, uh, yeah, it, it and, and that's, God showed me kinda
Speaker:like we were talking about earlier.
Speaker:It's all about community.
Speaker:People want community.
Speaker:People need community, you know, and so he showed me that with fireside.
Speaker:It's create a community.
Speaker:So we call ourselves fire starters.
Speaker:We have our mantra.
Speaker:We get together tonight.
Speaker:We have our weekly zoom and do what we call fireside chats.
Speaker:And in January, we're getting together in Tampa, doing a big retreat.
Speaker:And, uh, and that's a big thing.
Speaker:When people even asked me about starting a fireside franchise,
Speaker:they're like, Hey, Gar, why would I, our franchise sells for 50, 000.
Speaker:And then we usually do like a pay in full discount or in house funding.
Speaker:Gar, why would I cut you a check for 50, 000 when I could do all this myself?
Speaker:well, for two reasons.
Speaker:One is you can do it five years faster and probably save yourself double the 50, 000.
Speaker:Two is, is really the value.
Speaker:It's community do life with a bunch of faith driven entrepreneurs
Speaker:are, that have the same dreams and and purpose for your family.
Speaker:That's the big value.
Speaker:So it's obviously you're, you're, you're, you're seeing some real scaling.
Speaker:Going on.
Speaker:What's uh, what's the biggest struggle when you start growing business like this?
Speaker:And I, you know, we could drill down.
Speaker:You brought up, you were hesitant about franchising.
Speaker:I, I have similar thoughts.
Speaker:I work with leaders and leadership teams, and I've had the discussion of franchise,
Speaker:don't franchise expand and all that.
Speaker:And there's, there's pros and cons.
Speaker:Give a couple of them real quick that you went through when you
Speaker:were going through the process.
Speaker:Yeah, you know franchising once you're through it and it's all set up properly.
Speaker:It's great It it protects the consumer it it adds more accountability to the
Speaker:franchisor so it's great in that aspect.
Speaker:There's a lot of paperwork involved, which is Even to continue to with the
Speaker:registration states and all that kind of stuff um, thing I learned with franchising
Speaker:is when I started talking to franchise brokers You As I talked to one of the
Speaker:top franchise brokers in the nation, and I said, Hey, why do franchises fail?
Speaker:And he said, the reason why franchises fail is lack of
Speaker:support to the franchisees.
Speaker:So that became our top focus with Fireside is how do we support our franchisees?
Speaker:Uh, and so I have, great staff of people and what we've really
Speaker:been doing as we scale is.
Speaker:bringing our franchisees in to assist other franchisees, uh, and it's
Speaker:just, it's, it's been beautiful how we're all able to assist each other.
Speaker:have very in depth courses and quizzes to make sure they're understanding the
Speaker:content they're consuming, and we're just constantly, um, asking the franchisees,
Speaker:okay, what's your biggest pain point?
Speaker:You know, what's your biggest success?
Speaker:How can we help you?
Speaker:And just constantly getting that feedback so we can better serve them.
Speaker:And so that's, that's been great.
Speaker:Uh, I, I, 1 thing I learned, I was at a conference little about
Speaker:3 years ago called click funnels.
Speaker:Russell Bronson.
Speaker:You ever heard of him?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, uh.
Speaker:And there's a whole nother story there of how I got to that conference,
Speaker:which was a complete God story.
Speaker:I'll quickly share a little bit.
Speaker:Uh, I have reached out to 1 of my mentors in Texas, Josh Latimer,
Speaker:phenomenal business guy, man of God.
Speaker:And when I was going through all this pain of trying, you know, the
Speaker:drinking and the business and all this stuff kind of collapsing, and
Speaker:Josh is like, hey, get to Texas.
Speaker:I can help you.
Speaker:I was in such a bad spot.
Speaker:I thought oh great He just wants me there because he's gonna sell me a coaching
Speaker:program or something i'm the one who reached out to him like god told me to
Speaker:reach out to him I did it and I was a jerk and thinking he wants to scam me.
Speaker:So anyway Excuse excuse I didn't we're we're trying to collaborate
Speaker:over zoom Long story short.
Speaker:I go up to michigan that summer with my wife to this little hotel We love to
Speaker:stay at in luddington, michigan Well, josh actually has a summer home in
Speaker:luddington, michigan You My wife and I are sitting at this little restaurant
Speaker:and who walks in, Josh Latimer.
Speaker:And so I sent him a message, Hey, we're in Michigan, Ludington,
Speaker:any restaurants you recommend?
Speaker:And, you know, I was like, Oh my gosh, you're here.
Speaker:We sat down, had this amazing dinner together.
Speaker:And he said, you need to get to ClickFunnels Funnel Hacking
Speaker:Live in Orlando, Florida.
Speaker:I signed up right then.
Speaker:I got there.
Speaker:Russell opened it with this whole, the hero's journey that we walk
Speaker:on as entrepreneurs, and it just, I'm in tears in my hotel room.
Speaker:I have a video of myself just crying just in my beard at the time.
Speaker:It was like this, I was a wreck.
Speaker:I just looked crazy.
Speaker:And, Russell said a business has two sides.
Speaker:It has the attractive character and it has the operator.
Speaker:And I realized I'm the attractive character.
Speaker:I'm the visionary.
Speaker:I'm the one who can go out and talk and sell and do the videos and marketing.
Speaker:I didn't have an operator.
Speaker:I went and I got myself an operator and that, that there in the franchising,
Speaker:that's where things really exploded is when I was able to bring Stacey,
Speaker:who was one of my successful franchisees on as our operator.
Speaker:And she became my work wife and got me organized and system and
Speaker:all the things to where I wasn't all over the board and just.
Speaker:Exploded from there.
Speaker:What do you, um, do you have like a profile of what you
Speaker:look for in a franchise owner?
Speaker:And I know, I know the answer is often it's hard to say, but there's
Speaker:got to be with 50 plus almost 60.
Speaker:There's got to be some trends you're starting to notice with the type
Speaker:people that step in and do well.
Speaker:Yeah, most definitely First and foremost, we want to make sure that they know
Speaker:question is Gar runs his business based on biblical principles Do you agree with
Speaker:this and it's and even our advertising god showed me About a year ago when we
Speaker:started doing paid at well No It's only been about eight months paid advertising
Speaker:like putting out a lot of money in paid advertising show me have such a
Speaker:specific message you're not necessarily attracting your audience You're just
Speaker:you're repelling everybody else So literally if somebody sees your tagline
Speaker:on your facebook ad that says attention christian entrepreneurs You That you're 90
Speaker:percent of the people instantly disappear.
Speaker:so that was one thing he showed me.
Speaker:And then on the, our franchise application, it's, we got to make sure
Speaker:that they're coachable, uh, flip side of that, make sure they're not a no at all,
Speaker:which the two kind of go hand, you know, cause you, someone's like, oh yeah, I'm
Speaker:coachable, but then the next question, you know, they're kind of a know it all.
Speaker:And then if they're super analytical, that the faith over fear, like there's
Speaker:a spiritual side of this, right?
Speaker:So if you feel like you have to understand everything before you take
Speaker:a move or make a move, analytical, then I'm probably not the person that's
Speaker:going to serve you because I'm not going to give you all those answers.
Speaker:Uh, know, I'm going to say, Hey, this one thing.
Speaker:And then let's see what happens.
Speaker:And so those over analytical, literally when I started franchising this, uh,
Speaker:I had an investor who had three RVs with me at my location in Michigan.
Speaker:He bought my location from me, but this is where I learned the analytical side.
Speaker:Uh, he worked for Herman Miller in Michigan and he was a project
Speaker:manager and he ran this division.
Speaker:It was super smart.
Speaker:Did a great job.
Speaker:He interviewed me for months and months and months, and
Speaker:then he bought my franchise.
Speaker:just about put it under, just about lost his wife and I bought it back from him.
Speaker:Because he came in and he tore everything down and he started from square one
Speaker:and tried to rebuild and re and, and he worked himself into this horrible
Speaker:situation because he was so analytical.
Speaker:And didn't trust the process, and that's one of Russell Bronson's sayings.
Speaker:Trust the process.
Speaker:Do what Russell says is one of his famous sayings.
Speaker:Do what Russell says.
Speaker:Like, you don't have to know, and right, and it, I love how it intermingles with
Speaker:the spiritual and the natural there, because isn't that how the Lord is?
Speaker:Like, walk by faith, not by sight.
Speaker:Send the 5, 000 check to this person or whatever it is.
Speaker:You know, it's, it's, it's faith over fear.
Speaker:And, uh, and I, and it's so cool to be able to coach people
Speaker:on the spiritual side, right?
Speaker:Because you can just say, Hey, did you do the one thing I told you to do?
Speaker:Go do it.
Speaker:And then, uh, and then the Lord, because one thing that God has really shown me
Speaker:in entrepreneurship that I love about Christian entrepreneurship is when you're,
Speaker:when you take that step, just like in marriage or parenting or anything else.
Speaker:Then the Lord says, okay, you're taking that step.
Speaker:Hold on a second here.
Speaker:There's something inside of you.
Speaker:There's a lie.
Speaker:There's a hurt.
Speaker:There's a pain.
Speaker:There's a wound.
Speaker:Let me bring that to surface and heal it change the way that you think then
Speaker:I can bring you on to the next step.
Speaker:And that's the beauty of entrepreneurship.
Speaker:It like sucks all of that all into one pretty little package.
Speaker:Yeah, the, I mean, there's so many cool things I love about the story.
Speaker:Number one, that you're just in the RV industry and I'm sitting
Speaker:here broadcasting from an RV and have RVs all around me here.
Speaker:And then secondly, that you're in the entrepreneur space where
Speaker:you're helping other people.
Speaker:I love, I love The community aspect the way you speak about that because
Speaker:not everyone does that with franchises Sometimes it's a you sell it.
Speaker:Here's our system, you know the business in a box, but there's not the
Speaker:community around it And I really believe this is something that I believe is
Speaker:coming out of Covid more people want to be part of a community and you you
Speaker:brought up church and all earlier.
Speaker:Yeah It is the, that physical building, but we also saw some stuff with churches
Speaker:that were a little bit bothersome back during COVID that it could be
Speaker:that the future are communities like you're creating with fireside people
Speaker:that are, yeah, they're independent.
Speaker:They're, they own their own business, but they're part of a system,
Speaker:but yet they're all faith driven.
Speaker:They can come together.
Speaker:They can pray together, support each other.
Speaker:I, I love that.
Speaker:Hey Gar, if someone wants more info, either.
Speaker:Let's encourage if they need to go rent an RV and just get out of
Speaker:the city, wherever they're in or something like that, give that info.
Speaker:And then secondarily give info.
Speaker:If they are saying, you know what, I'm kind of intrigued by the business.
Speaker:Uh, give that info right now.
Speaker:We'll include it in the notes.
Speaker:And then I've got one more question before we wrap up.
Speaker:Yeah, go to fireside rv rental.com.
Speaker:You can click on Rent an rv, rent Out Your RV, or Start a Fireside.
Speaker:so you can get all three options from that website, fireside rv rental.com.
Speaker:And then the other website I'd love to send people to is my realestate story.com.
Speaker:So that's my book where you can just go download a free copy of it.
Speaker:you can get it on Amazon as well if you want to hold something in your hands.
Speaker:But if you want to download a copy, I believe we have the audio
Speaker:version on there as well for free.
Speaker:I just love sharing Christian entrepreneurship.
Speaker:And one of the things I love doing is talking to what I call entrepreneurs.
Speaker:You think you're an entrepreneur, you're not sure, you want to.
Speaker:There's some things in the book that talk about helping you seal the deal
Speaker:of, uh, Yeah, I'm an entrepreneur.
Speaker:Now, what do I do?
Speaker:Yeah, that's good.
Speaker:We'll make sure we make sure people have the links.
Speaker:I popped up for those on the video on my Kindle here, the, my wheel estate story.
Speaker:And so, yeah, I think it's a, it's a good read and it's a good glimpse into
Speaker:if someone's considering doing business with you, they get to know you a little
Speaker:bit more, this has been helpful here, but I think the book helps with that too.
Speaker:So, Hey Gar, we are Sikh.
Speaker:Go create those three words.
Speaker:I'm going to allow you to choose one of those over the other two.
Speaker:That just means more resonates with you, whatever.
Speaker:Seek, go or create.
Speaker:And why that's my last question.
Speaker:Oh man, def create for sure.
Speaker:I've really been studying this here the last several months about, um,
Speaker:being, being created in God's image.
Speaker:And then to even take it a step further, when we create,
Speaker:we use our imagination, right?
Speaker:And I just got done reading this book by Andrew Womack called
Speaker:the power of our imagination.
Speaker:And he talks about in Genesis six, when they're, I believe it's Genesis six,
Speaker:when they're building the tower of Babel.
Speaker:And God's like, Hey, we got to do something about this
Speaker:because if people come together, there's nothing they can't do.
Speaker:one of the words in there that he uses, it's the same word when it
Speaker:says, when faith, when it says faith is being certain of what we hope for.
Speaker:So the word hope imagination comes from the Hebrew word yet sir.
Speaker:And it's just the beauty of our imagination, how we can literally.
Speaker:just create from our imagination and anything.
Speaker:My daughter was just, my seven, eight year old was just talking about this yesterday.
Speaker:Like, so dad, anything I think of in my mind, like I can, I could probably do it.
Speaker:Like I could probably make it happen if I'm imagining it.
Speaker:And, and I'm like, yeah, honey, you can.
Speaker:And so, yeah, create, it's gotta be
Speaker:Yeah, that's good.
Speaker:Kind of reminds me, you brought up Napoleon Hill a few times,
Speaker:whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.
Speaker:So that's good.
Speaker:Um, man, what a great conversation, Gar.
Speaker:I knew I'd love it.
Speaker:Cause there's so many parts of your story that resonate with me personally.
Speaker:Make sure that you go get a copy of the book.
Speaker:Uh, either via his website, but, my wheel estate story from lawnmowers to
Speaker:RVs, my entrepreneurial journey filled with faith failures and fun times.
Speaker:I appreciate Gar having the conversation.
Speaker:Go check out some of his stuff, go check it out.
Speaker:And especially if you're interested in the RV rental, I think that's something
Speaker:that everybody, if you haven't done it.
Speaker:Uh, check it out.
Speaker:Go rent an RV and get out, just go do stuff.
Speaker:And, uh, of course, if you're interested in the business, check with them on
Speaker:that too, we're seek go create here.
Speaker:We've got new episodes every Monday.
Speaker:We're on YouTube on all the platforms.
Speaker:I highly encourage you, especially if you're on YouTube, jump down, make some
Speaker:comments, uh, let us know you listened, questions, whatever we love to hear.
Speaker:If you disagree with anything, I'm okay with that.
Speaker:Had a, Had an eschatology, uh, one recently that it kind of blew up on
Speaker:all the background because people want to argue over that kind of stuff.
Speaker:So anyway, love to hear from you.
Speaker:Please share these episodes is how we get the word out.
Speaker:thanks for listening in here until next time,