John and Connie: Hi and welcome to

celebrating small family businesses.

I'm John Kuder and I'm Connie Kuder.

And today we are celebrating

Waypoint Property Inspection and

we've got four owners on with us.

So this is going to be exciting.

So I'm going to start

with, uh, introduction.

I can't do introductions because

this is going to wind up being, , in

terms of video, it's going to

be speaker view mostly, I think.

So, , I wanted to start with Bob.

Bob.

, what's the, what was the

origin story of your business?

How did you guys decide

to, to do Waypoint?

Sure.

, first of all, I want to thank you, , John

and Connie for having us on today.

It's real exciting to be

able to share our story.

, basically the journey for

Waypoint began actually 19

years ago this month in, , 2005.

And really the, the impetus of

getting started was a result of,

uh, my making a career change.

I was Working for a large

financial company at the time.

And if you, I know we're all too young on

this call, but back in the early 2000s,

there was a lot of offshoring going on

where a lot of the work, which was once

domestically Being taken care of was

being sent overseas and the company I

worked for actually went through that.

And, you know, really, I, I

totally understand the reasoning.

It's all about, , making shareholders

happy, not necessarily customers.

, when it comes to customer service, it's

the bottom line at the end of the day.

So I was given a choice.

actually trained a lot of our

replacements, , in the Philippines

and, and India at the time.

And then, um, I was given a choice to stay

with the company and relocate to that,

to their headquarters up in Virginia,

um, since they were downsizing in the U.

S.

And, uh, since over the previous few

years, I had , moved my family first from

California to Texas, and then from Texas

to Florida, um, and then in the ensuing

couple of years after that, Eddie and

his family joined us along with, my wife.

And, my wife and Eddie's wife

are sisters, and they, uh, their

parents moved from California,

so we were all together.

And if I left and moved my

family to Richmond, I probably

wouldn't have moved the family.

I would have got it as a single man.

So I didn't want to do that.

, so actually, , the company I worked with

was very good to me, which afforded me

to take a deep look inside , and decide,

, after, , having conversations with, , my

wife, Jeanette and Austin, who was around

10 at the time and a man of wisdom at 10,

uh, what was my next step going to be?

And, a couple of things that led

me to starting Waypoint was, uh,

taking a look inside my whole life.

What did I, A, enjoy doing and

B, what I felt I, I did well.

And, uh, both kind of came along the line

of developing people and educating them.

And so with some soul searching, some

research, I came upon home inspection,

which again, 19 years ago, and still

is a relatively new industry and,

uh, did a lot of studying, a lot of

understanding, a lot of research, and,

uh, decided to go into home inspection

because the last thing I wanted to do

was shake the hands again, shake the

hands of 500 people as I was laying them

off, which I happened to do in 2005.

I did follow them out the door.

I wanted to be my own boss.

So if I were to get fired, it

was going to be me firing me.

, but it's really started start ground up,

, as an entrepreneur and because of that

education and, uh, teaching people about

their homes and satisfying the partners

that we work with, , I truly enjoyed that.

And that's why, , I started Waypoint,

uh, back in 2005 and, , basically

was a quote unquote, one man

shop, , from 2005 until 2013.

, Eddie did help me along the way.

I won't steal his thunder

that, , he'll probably talk about

his story with Waypoint, , but

joined me, , full time in 2014.

Austin joined us, uh,

actually Eddie joined in 2013.

Uh, correct myself, Austin

joined part time while he

was going to college in 2014.

And then in 2016, when he graduated,

he joined the company full time.

But, you know, in a nutshell, , from

a one man shop, Back in 2005 to today,

where we have, , over 30 domestic

employees and five global team

members who support us from overseas.

, it's been a fun ride.

Basically that is the.

In a nutshell, backstory , of

Waypoint property inspection.

John and Connie: Thank you.

Yeah.

And congratulations on almost

being 20 years in the business.

As we know, small businesses

collapse pretty quickly, . But

thank you for, for being smart

enough to do the homework before.

Real quick, I remember going

to school, uh, for home inspection to

get my, , certification at the time.

We were not a licensed

profession in Florida until 2010.

I remember the instructor standing

in front of the class and there was

probably about 30 of us and basically

saying all but two of you will not

be in business three years from now.

So I guess, , there's

somebody else out there.

But I'm very happy to say that

after two years and almost 20 years

that we are still in business.

John and Connie: That's

wonderful, wonderful.

Well, since you kind of teed it up

for us, Eddy, uh, do you want to jump

in and talk about how your, uh, your

arc with the business came to be and

Yeah, I won't,

I won't mind sharing that.

But, uh, then we got to get to Mark as

to why he created Waypoint East at the

time, but again, like Bob has said, I

joined him a part time around 2007 because

he was very busy, , as a one man shop.

And then I joined him mainly on the

weekends just to help them help them out

and pretty much for a burger and a beer.

, and then in 2000, 2000, it was

around 2007, 2008, where we had

a reduction in force as well.

But I was, I was assigned

to a different area.

So then I didn't want

to jump in at that time.

And then the market wasn't doing as

well, during that timeframe as well on,

on the home, real estate section, uh,

I was in a major, , Banking, , company

as well in the call center, um, and

got moved to a different position.

So I stayed there until 2013, where

they were getting, uh, resizing and, uh,

and decided to move out of the state.

It was an international banking company

that decided to leave the U S market.

And then, uh, at that time,

that's when I decided that I'm

going to join Bob full time.

Because his business warranted, and

you know, one of the biggest things

when I joined Bob and we say this

all the time is that I didn't want

to, you know, rob Peter to pay Paul.

I didn't want to take from his

pocket to move money into my pocket.

wanted to make sure there was

enough money out there for both

of our pockets, uh, to flourish.

At that time and in 2013, that's when

I made my move, I got the license

and since then, you know, one of the

biggest goals that we had as joining up

when we went to a conference, we both

looked at each other and said, we don't

want to be just a two man operation.

We want to be a multi inspector firm.

And since then, we've laid the

tracks towards that success.

So I've been very appreciative of that.

And we all have our own assignments and

within the Within the family business,

and we, you know, we all try to strive

to work at our strengths and build

the company based on our strengths.

So thanks for asking, , John and Connie.

John and Connie: That's fabulous.

You're welcome.

Yep, boy, you just hit on two of

our primary drivers is, is the,

you know, focus on strengths and,

and knowing, having clear roles and

everybody working in their role.

So Mark, you're next.

You got, Tell us your story.

You expanded, you started, I hear East.

Tell me about East.

Well, thank you, John.

Thank you, Connie.

It's east because obviously Bob,

Austin and Eddie are located in Tampa.

I'm actually located in Palm Beach County.

To give you a little bit more

backstory prior to business this

year, Bob and I are friends 50 years.

John and Connie: Wow.

Cool.

Okay.

Well, there, there's, you know,

effectively another family connection.

Well, and it's funny you

said that because when we announced

the merger of the two companies, we

announced it as a merger of families.

So basically in 2005, I moved to

South Florida from New Jersey.

My wife and I both having fairly

good corporate jobs and I was

getting phone calls from Bob.

We were talking almost every

day and he was saying, I don't

know what I'm going to do.

I want to look at this.

I want to look at a UPS store.

And then he got into home inspection

once he got started, he said to

me, oh, you should get into this.

And I said, I'm in the air more

than I'm on the ground with my

corporate job at all at a time.

So that in June of 2006, I went over and

actually stayed at Bob's house and took

the same class he had taken, figuring I'm

going to start a small part time business.

And figure helps to, bring a

little bit more to the family

and it was working fine.

And then in 2008, just like Bob and Eddie,

I went through a corporate downsizing.

, I worked for a different bank, but it was

on the insurance side of the business.

And obviously at that point, 2008

was the big collapse of the market.

And a year later, my wife

working for a fourth corporate

institution lost her corporate job.

So we kind of reinvented ourselves.

I went full time and started building

it and it just began to roll.

And in, I guess it was about the same

time around 2013, I hired my first

inspector on the East coast to help.

And we started growing and both

sides blossomed very well.

We bounce things off of each other.

We shared marketing ideas, logos, all,

all the ways of operating the business,

but kept them corporately separate.

And then after Austin came in and

he'll, he'll laugh about this.

used to go to our conferences and he used

to say to me, I want to buy your company.

And I'd say, you can't afford me.

And he'd say, how do you know that?

I said, cause I know your father.

So finally we decided about

a year and a half ago,

almost two years ago to, to perform

the merger of the two companies.

And here we are today.

John and Connie: Very cool.

Very cool.

Austin, what um, you're second

generation and I want to, I think I

want to start out with that for you.

So what do you love most about

working in the family business?

I think it's, it's a

combination of the flexibility that

it provides versus a standard job

or going the corporate route, right?

As Bob, Eddie and Mark have all gone down.

Um, it's the ease of communication

in a sense when it comes to making

decisions, when it comes to figuring

out which direction we're going to go.

Um, and I think it's just the feeling

of, We're all working together to build

something that not only benefits all of

us as a family, but also benefits the

employees and their families as well.

So I think it's those three main things

I would say all kind of come together in

perfect unison of what makes it a great

thing to do, right?

Working with family.

John and Connie: I love that

you said ease of communication.

That's, um, I want to say that's

somewhat uncommon in family businesses

that it'd be easy because the family

dynamics tend to get in the way.

So kudos for, you know,

working that making that work.

One of the things we

follow pretty closely is the EOS model

with Traction, and through that model,

they basically, , put out a very clear

guideline that when it comes to meetings,

everything needs to be fully transparent

from the communication standpoint, right?

So when the 4 of us get together in

a meeting, if you leave that meeting

feeling like things were left unsaid,

or things weren't brought up that

should have been brought up, and

we're not perfect at it, right?

We'll get out of the meeting and

realize we should have spent more

time on this topic and we need

to do a better job next time.

But I think we do a really good job

with that transparency because we

follow a model that basically stipulates

that has to be part of how we run

the organization, run our meetings.

John and Connie: Nice.

So for our listeners, I'm just going to...

correct me if I miss anything,

but the EOS stands for

Entrepreneurial Operating System.

And Traction, it was created by, and

Traction is a book written by the

creator, I think it's Gino Wickman, is it?

Yep, that's correct.

John and Connie: Awesome, awesome.

Yeah, he's, he's a big force in the,

in the small business world, I think.

And, yeah, that, having that system,

, that's strong, as a lot of businesses

need to know more about that.

Read Traction.

I think it's a free download

too, I don't know, but okay,

so I'm going to jump to Bob.

So you're the dad in the business.

You've got your son in the business

as well as your brother in law.

What do you, and his best

friend, and your best friend.

Yeah.

What, what works for you?

What, what do you love

about the family aspect?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think the dynamic works

because, uh, like we have mentioned

before, um, I don't want to call it all

about strengths and weaknesses, John,

or strengths and areas of opportunity.

I also want to call it what, you know,

what we're passionate about, what

each of us does well, what we enjoy

doing and what we're passionate about.

And it's actually, , four different,

you'll get four different answers.

Now we do have some overlap.

Like you had mentioned, our family

dynamic, it's, it's not all peaches and

cream, but, you know, utilizing not only

the, the traction system, but the, trust,

and I'll even say it, the love we have

amongst each other, we know that even

through the, the challenging times, uh,

we'll get through it, but we have our,

as we call it, we have our lanes, Um,

sometimes our lanes are, uh, sometimes

our, our highways are eight lanes wide.

Sometimes they're two lanes wide.

As the company matured, they have changed.

I remember obviously first starting

out, you know, I was, I was a chief

bottle washer, the janitor, every,

you know, everything, taking orders.

And, and then, , as we grew up and Eddie

joined, um, I still remember and he talks

about it, , he was a driver and I was

taking the orders over the phone, and I

was a driver and he was following up with,

you know, so you do what you have to do.

And as you, as you add on the resources,

and in our case, we were lucky to

have families and family and dear

friends, , you develop partly naturally.

And the other way is just where, where

you feel you have the most strength to

give, . And that's, and that's really

what's defined us, especially over the

last, uh, year plus, since we had the

merger, because, you know, we had, we had

the three of us that were still, you know,

Austin was maturing into his position,

um, Eddie and I were kind of rooted in

ours, knowing we needed to change somewhat

and have some flexibility, um, and, and

finding our way, I remember way back

in the beginning, and Eddie has an HR

background from the corporate world, uh,

he, he was working the HR department.

HR purpose of the company, and today I

am, um, and it's, it's, you know, it's, I

found, you know, with the added resources

that I, I, A, I didn't have to do what

I did before, whether I liked it or not,

and B, I was able to steer myself into

that highway, multiple lane highway.

Of things that I do enjoy doing, and a lot

of what I enjoy doing now is the company's

matured and it's, it's, you know, 19

years old is I like to do more of the

behind the scenes and the support disease.

Um, I write educational.

classes.

Um, we all teach them.

I, I actually was co working for

a few years where I was the lead

instructional lead instructor for

a company that was teaching home

inspections on a national basis.

So I think that's the big thing is,

is, you know, we're good at things.

We're able to streamline them into

a, a Purely definable purpose.

There's a little bit of overlap,

but we understand that we rely on.

We can rely on each other and,

uh, and work with each other based

upon our strengths and really what

what our highway is right now.

So, that's really how I feel about

it and it could change tomorrow.

It does.

It will change tomorrow.

It won't change drastically, but there'll

be another layer that's added tomorrow and

we'll sit down and we'll work it out and.

And, you know, assign responsibilities

around it and get it done.

John and Connie: Okay, that's that.

Wow.

There's a lot there to unpack

more than we've got time for.

We'd have to do another another call.

I love I love what you know you said

earlier you talked about how you really

like to develop people that that's

you know part of passion and so you

brought out the idea of strengths but

not strengths just on the fact that

I'm good at this or you know I've got

this background but also passion for

doing that and you know we've got a

favorite tool that we use, in our work

that's, , a book by a lady named Kristen

Sherry called YouMap, Y O U M A P.

And she starts with Clifton Strengths

as, uh, one of the pillars, but then

she has , it takes you through finding

out all your different skills and she

divides skills into different categories

and the top category is the skills that

you're, things that you're good at,

but they also energize you when you

do them because we've all got things

that we're, we can do and we're good

at them, but they drain us, right?

And then there's others that energize us.

And so I hear you talking about you guys

finding your, you know, marrying your

strengths with those skills that energize

you and then making that your lane,

even if that's not where you started.

Is that accurate?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thanks.

And the book, and the book

you mentioned, YouMap, I have heard of

that, but I can tell you, and I know

we don't have the time today, but,

uh, we've done many exercises and, and

others have written or put together

programs that are similar to that.

And that's, that's something that we.

We relish and we work on to is

we, we don't sit on our laurels

and continue to do what we do.

We look for, for different ways

that we can either do it better

individually or better collectively

use using the resources.

Um, like you mentioned

with the book, YouMap.

John and Connie: Nice.

Nice.

Yeah.

And that was another thing I wanted

to call out from, uh, and emphasize

what you were saying was, , as the

company has grown, you've been each

flexible to look at what you're doing.

And rather than saying, no, this is my

job, I'm going to keep doing this is

where, you know, how can you shift for

the, I I'm assuming for the benefit

of the company in the whole , and,

you moving into different areas.

And I think that's, uh, that's

probably a major key to your success.

Would you agree?

Yes,

John and Connie: So, Mark, you were,

your own own company, uh,

from, I want to say in the 2000 or

mid 2000s until you guys, you just

merged in a couple of years ago.

Were you guys working very closely

together in terms of communication because

of the friendship through those years?

It's funny

you say that.

I, there's not a

day in the past.

19 years that Bob and I haven't spoken

five or six or seven times in a day.

Um, and when we started the companies or

after I started mine, it was a constant.

And it was, Oh my God, I just saw this

and send a picture over and what is it?

Or, and, and through the years we've

always talked, we've always shared

the secret sauce or however you'd like

to describe it as, Hey, I just did

this and I think it's going to work.

And it we grew right.

I mean, we used to track I was it was a

year behind their organization and growing

kind of at the same pace a year later.

So, um, yeah, the communication

is has always been there.

I mean, again, it's family.

If you have to pick up the phone

at eight o'clock at night, you

know somebody's going to answer.

We've all gone through our

family challenges, , our family

health issues, things like that.

And you have more people to lean on.

So, from that standpoint, from a business

we have even more people to lean on.

We have multiple

layers of people to lean on.

So the communication is, is always

there, always will be there.

John and Connie: Yeah.

You guys are a real blueprint

for, for a successful business.

Yeah.

Family business.

This is, this is just amazing.

Really glad we're recording this.

I have to, I'm going, I sent you guys

a list of questions, and I've got

one that's come to mind that isn't on

the list, so if it's fair game, cool.

, Since three of you came from a

corporate background, you've also

all been through a downsizing.

I was, you know, I was a very small

RIF, but I had a short corporate

career and went through that.

That's a painful process.

I, it was for me.

Um, but also my question

really wasn't about that.

My question is about, have you

been able because of your corporate

background to pull some of , the

strengths, , the processes , or just

the corporate way of doing things

into your business and make it work?

Was that geared towards

anybody or just everybody?

John and Connie: I mean, well,

whoever comes up with the first idea.

Well, Eddie had the HR background, right?

Since I spoke up first, I

guess I'll be on the hook for the,

for a couple of minutes on this.

You know, one of the biggest

things, especially, uh, being in the

corporate background is, you know,

I, I don't take that for granted.

That, that, that was a lot of

learning when I went through college.

I, I always wanted to be in,

at, back in the day in college,

it was called personnel.

Right now I'm really dating myself.

Um, and then it changed over to

human resources, but I always

loved to be in personnel.

When I got into personnel, I

said to myself, why am I here?

You know, because I, I got to see

a lot of the other sides of it,

whether it was a corrective action, a

termination, I love the hiring side.

That's one thing that I really thrived on

John and Connie was that the hiring side,

and that's one of the things that I

tried to blossom towards and I did.

Learned the training side of it.

Well, whether it was doing that,

uh, extra degrees and 212 degrees

or going into, the discovering

your strengths with, Don Clifton.

And then also the biggest one that

impacted me the most going through my

corporate career was Stephen Covey and

his Seven Habits of Highly Effective

People, right, where we, you know, we,

at the beginning, especially being owners

of the company have to be proactive.

To try and see where we're at in

the market and see where we're at

as a home inspection business as to

where the others are in the market.

We have, , researchers out there

helping us, look at , other businesses

as well, whether they're single

man, a multi, multi man shop, we're

members of a lot of associations.

We're highly regarded in that and

we pride ourselves on that because

one of the things that we really do

John and Connie is we really follow

habit number seven of The higher

habits, which is sharpen the saw.

There's never a time where

we rest on the laurels.

We have to figure out what's next

What's going to be coming up next.

And for us, you know, we

were always looking into the

business as to what can we do.

And what's our strengths.

And, uh, the biggest thing that we

do is, , and I think everybody will

tell you, this is passion, right?

You can't teach somebody passion.

You either got to have it in the

business or you don't, if you don't

have passion in the business, you're

probably going to fail in that business.

You probably don't want to, you don't

care about the business, but that's

one of the biggest things that we do

is , we make sure we're proactive.

Austin with all his, with all the books

that are in his background that again,

he probably read last weekend, you know,

his Christmas list is about 50 books.

, and he reads them.

I, I try to listen to him, uh, because

I, when I read, I fall asleep, but

nonetheless, when, uh, when it comes

down to these habits of what we do,

I can guarantee you when you ask

each one of us separately, we'll

talk about the passion that we have.

For me, it's the passion of becoming

a multi inspector firm and having

all these families relying on us.

And then, , having them grow on their own

because a lot of our success, our success

is their success because of the fact that

we listen to them and the team members as

the, Hey, maybe we should start trying to

do this or we should start trying to do

that because again, uh, some of the best

minds are the people that are on your team

because they're doing the job every day.

So hopefully, uh, that, that

was my two minute spurt on it.

And if anybody else wants

to chime in, I welcome that.

of course.

I'd like to chime in because

it's a little bit different.

, I would venture to place a bet that

if I didn't have corporate experience

waypoint wouldn't be here today.

Uh,

because , the foundation of what I

learned and what I built upon, and

it wasn't just with the financial

services company that I worked for.

I mean, I have a retail background , and,

, it goes back to, you know, I really,

when I was doing soul searching and

decided on home inspection, it was, it

went back to when I was the president of

the key club in high school or the, The

captain of my soccer team when I was in

elementary school, or when I, when I was

an RA in college, and what was I doing?

I was, I was overseeing quote

unquote, the operations and, and I

would say, keeping people in line or

developing people, helping them mature.

But I don't think Waypoint would be

around if I didn't have corporate

experience and, . I see that a

lot in today's new inspectors.

, Eddie mentioned, we are

members of associations.

We are looked at, uh, based upon our

success, based upon our experience.

I see a lot of new inspectors

coming into the industry.

They take a course, they pass

a test and their next, their

next step is what do I do now?

They don't know what to do and they

stumble upon it and they, they become one

man shops until they have to close because

they don't know how to run a business

or so, you know, I learned to run a

business through my corporate experience.

Through , my work experience, I

was able to get a, a master's

in project management.

So, I'm very, very analytical.

I'm very anal.

I don't want to say to a fault, but I want

to make sure that at least 90 percent of

the plan is done before we initiate it.

And, I have Mark and Eddie

and even Austin at times saying

80 percent is good enough.

Let's get there and get it done.

But the other thing, aside from

the operations and the project

management, , I believe in, in.

replacing yourself and, , did that

a lot prior to starting Waypoint,

you know, my job going in was

to find somebody to replace me.

It gives me opportunities to move up

and it gives them an opportunity to

grow and I've had to think back upon

the last 19 years when I was wearing

all the hats to run the company from

operations to, you know, administration

to customer service to inspecting, you

know, what, what did I have to do is I

had to replace myself a little at a time.

And even, even recently, , in, in

doing the merge and all that, uh,

there are different aspects of,

of the job that we had to sit down

and, and I had to replace myself.

So I would say I'll end it with, uh,

the best thing that I learned through

my corporate experience and, and ongoing

with my waypoint experience is to get out

of my own way and let somebody else step

in and do it and probably do it better.

John and Connie: Wow.

Nice.

Nice.

Two hard acts to follow Mark.

You wanna try or you think that's good?

Yeah, it's it's they've

always been hard acts to follow.

Um, my corporate life wasn't at

the management level they were at.

I mean, I was working

for an insurance broker.

I mean, I ran my own department, but

it was I bring the insurance knowledge

and and wherewithal with that to the

industry because obviously in the state of

Florida, insurance is a four letter word.

And, we do a lot of talking about

not only our coverages, but when

we're talking with clients and talking

about with realtors, about what they

need and what they don't need, that's

where a lot of my knowledge comes

in, having done that for 27 years.

Um, so it's, it's a little bit

different cause I did not have the

management skills that they had.

And to that point, the three of them,

including Austin, have actually taught

me a lot about management and about

managing people and how to say things.

My wife happened to be a high level

manager and she is the same way.

She's like, you can't say that to them.

And

Bob's

You can say it,

you just can't say that way!

Say it after he said it.

So it's, it's been a big change.

And it was a, that.

One of the funniest stories I can

remember when Bob and I both started

switching over to having somebody answer

our phones, we were both panicking

because our cell phones weren't ringing,

but it was ringing somewhere else.

And we didn't realize you didn't have

to be in an attic and answer a phone

or be on a roof and answer a phone.

Somebody else is actually very good

at it and they did better than we did.

So

John and Connie: it was that awareness

of not being the one man shop anymore

and making that transition in your

head as well as in the business.

correct.

And then as Bob referenced, We

have five people in the Philippines

who who answer our phones.

So the globe has gotten very tiny.

John and Connie: Yes, it has.

Yes it has.

Alright, thank you guys.

Austin, tell me about your experience

in the business, , since, do you

have a corporate, did you work in

corporate outside the business before

you joined the business, and, and

otherwise, just, what is your place

in the business, what do you do?

so this was pretty

much my 1st, I would consider

a professional career, started

part time in college as Bob.

Before working for Waypoint, I was

working at big lots, so had a nice retail

job where I was unloading the trucks or

stocking the shelves or, you know, your,

your first starter job, essentially, and.

Right around the time that I joined

Waypoint was when there was a

noticeable growth in the amount of

inspections that were coming in.

And one of the things within our

business is there's a balance between

marketing and inspectors, right?

Every business is like that, but balance

between bringing in business and having

people that can fulfill the jobs.

And it was starting to snowball at that

point where There was a need now for more

marketing, so I was one of the ones on

the marketing team to go out and meet with

realtors and give presentations, promote

the business, help build the brand and

help to build up a marketing team there,

uh, did that for a couple of years.

Then my role shifted

to focus on the office.

So, as Mark mentioned earlier on in

the business, there were other people

answering the phones outside call

centers that we had basically contracted.

And then we made a decision, well,

let's bring the calls in house.

Let's hire local people and start

answering the phones ourselves.

And I was one of The first ones on

the phone's booking inspections,

so I was doing all the scheduling.

I was answering the questions sitting

in the office, basically managing

the schedule of the inspectors and

then help build up the office team.

And then from there, my focus shifted

more on general operations in the company.

So learning more about the financials,

learning about the numbers,

learning about how the business

runs and how it needs to grow.

Um, really focusing on systems.

Our website back then was, um, we

can say like a late 1990s website.

And we were a much bigger and

mature company at that point.

So it was time for an upgrade.

Um, so I started diving a lot into our

systems where we're using the best phone

system, the best email provider, the best

website, the best scheduling platform.

And that became a lot of

my focus was on efficiency.

And how do we build out tools that help

support the company and its growth?

Um, and then to where I am now, um,

CEO of the company focusing more

on strategy, focusing on long term

opportunity, um, focusing a lot on

what's going on in the industry,.

We had so much business during covid,

um, which we were very fortunate

because of all the people that were

moving to Florida, whereas a lot of

the colleagues we know in the industry

in northern states were losing so

much business either because their

shutdowns were much more severe or

people were just leaving those areas.

So we had a huge bump during COVID.

Last year, that bump started to go

away for almost every region that

experienced a bump in business.

And so all the growth we had experienced

was now sort of turning down, right?

And we had a tough few months that we,

you know, we're really strategizing around

how are we going to make it through this

downturn to where things pick back up

again, um, without having to downsize

the team, without having to make major

cuts in different parts of the business.

So that's where a lot of my focus was,

and our focus was, is leading those

kinds of conversations while also looking

forward as to what is coming so that

we can be properly positioned for that.

Um, so I don't have any

corporate background.

I've actually never done

a home inspection myself.

I've learned a lot through all the

stuff I've done with marketing,

through answering the phones,

talking to the inspectors, but

I'm not a licensed inspector.

Just focus more on the

business side of things.

But a lot of what I spend my time

on as well is with that networking

with colleagues in the industry.

So, as Bob and Mark have mentioned,

we're part of associations.

We're also part of coaching

groups that are nationwide for

home inspection business owners.

So every quarter we get together.

Yeah, we get

together and we talk about

what's the state of our business.

What are you doing that's working?

What do you need help with?

And given the size of our company, we're

sitting in a room with companies that

are bringing in 15 million, 20 million

in revenue a year, which is a lot bigger

than us, but people that are willing to

help us and willing to take our ideas

and implement it in their business.

then about two years ago, I

also joined Vistage, which is a

national CEO coaching organization.

They have more local chapters.

So where I live is a Vistage chapter

that I meet with on a monthly basis.

And that's business

owners in all industries.

So monthly I'm getting together with

industry leaders that are not at all

related to home inspections, but are

still bringing a perspective that

can get us out of our bubble to a

degree and help bring in new fresh

ideas as to how we can innovate.

So that's kind of where I started just,

you know, part time marketing, marketing

ourselves to real estate agents.

And where I am today is both helping

lead strategy while also really taking

in as much information as I can from

colleagues, both within and outside

the industry to make sure that we're

continuing to go forward successfully.

John and Connie: Nice.

Well, it sounds like you've worked in

pretty much every department of the

business except the field inspection.

So kudos to that.

And, um, I, I love that you talked

about, you brought out the idea

of the collaboration with, with

peers that are not competitors.

, I had a cousin, uh, and her husband,

, they were second generation in a family

auto repair business, and they attributed

a great deal of their continuity and their

growth and success to being part of the

coaching organization that was specific to

their industry, but they would, you know,

all of the people that they met with on a

regular basis were not local competitors.

So there was no concern about, you

know, bringing it, putting everything

on the table and asking for help

or, , listening to getting ideas.

And so I love that you're

doing that two different ways.

That's, that's awesome.

Yeah, and if I can

just add real quick to that, John,

so, it's a little bit unique for

our coaching group because we do

actually have competitors in the room.

So we have a company that's

about 30 minutes south of us.

We have a company that's based

in Orlando that are both really

big players in our industry and.

I think there's, there's a

couple of things at play.

It's a level of trust that there's

enough business out there that we can

all collectively still work together,

even if we're in each other's backyards.

And it helps elevate the

industry as a whole, right?

But I think it's also, you get to a

certain level in the business to where you

realize one, there's no real golden secret

that you're doing that I'm not doing.

And even if there is, just cause it's

working for you, it doesn't mean I'm going

to take it and it's going to work for

me, Right.

Cause it works different for everybody.

Um, But it's just, we were definitely

in that mindset when we were a

smaller company is we got to keep

everything close to the chest.

We can't tell anybody anything

because we're vulnerable.

We, you know, we can be

wiped out in an instant.

And just when you reach a certain

size, you realize that that's just

not, it's not going to happen.

And it's not how things are

working, at least in our industry.

So yeah, all those meetings that I go to,

we have big competitors in our markets

that are in there and we all openly share

with each other and just try and make sure

we're all moving forward successfully.

John and Connie: I love hearing that.

Yeah, you it's interesting

that you mentioned size.

I one of my tenets is that the the growth

of the owner is what restricts the growth

of the business and the business grows in

proportion to the owner's personal growth.

And so, you know, I'm hearing, even

though you're talking about the business

growing, I'm also hearing and of course,

because Bob has said about training

people and so forth and Eddie, uh, that.

You know, the developing people and that

sense of interest in personal growth has

led to an awareness of what you just said.

There's plenty for everybody.

It's a matter of how you conduct

your business rather than

who you're competing against.

Yeah, there

was a tipping point.

, I would say within the last couple of

years with our leadership team where they

went from being followers to leaders.

, We have a great leadership team, but

for the longest time, they would wait.

They would wait for us to

guide them and wait for us to.

To give them instructions, and

I'd say it was a challenge because

we knew they had the talent.

We knew they had the, uh, the

energy and, and I would say

we knew they had the passion.

It was just, you know, again,

you're, you're dealing with

four owners, not just one.

So, you know, you want to make

sure you keep mom, dad and.

Step mom and step dad happy or, or

however it is, but it was a tipping point.

Um, it was individual points for,

for our leaders, but now it's,

uh, again, like I said, uh, I'm

going to get out of their way.

I'm here to guide them.

I'm here to nudge them.

Um, but I think we all feel that way with

our, with our leadership team, for the

most part, that they can lead the company.

We, we always, you know, we sit in a room

and told them, you know, we all want to

go on, you know, all the owners who want

to go on, uh, Uh, three month cruise.

Are you going to run the business for us?

You know, and, and, you know, we're

getting to the point where we could

literally go on a three month cruise and

with with a little input, probably feel

confident that, you know, the company

at least be here when we come back.

But, um,

is that tipping point, you know, is, is

to get, to get them the confidence that

they can make the decisions without,

without always having to run things by us.

You know, when, when I worked for the

financial company, I had a boss who told

me, I'm going to let you do whatever

you want, as long as it's legal.

And it doesn't get me in trouble.

And that I learned a lot from that is,

you know, you do what you have to do

to run the business and you do have

your guidelines and you have to keep

things legal, but you know, here's

the ball, take it and run with it.

And I think we have a good team

in place that, that can do that.

John and Connie: So that's a

wonderful place to put a pin.

You mentioned tipping point.

So can you identify

that more specifically?

What drove , that tip, what pushed

them over that tipping point?

I'm going to ask, I'm going

to, I'm going to, cause you, you work

more directly with them, but I'm going

to, and like I said, it wasn't the same.

time and place for everybody.

Each person has, you know, has

a different point, but Eddie,

Eddie works within his role.

He works more closely with our

leadership team, but, you know, you could

probably say that better than I could.

Yeah, thank you, Bob.

And it's a very good question you have,

John, because, you know, when, when

is, like Bob had said, you know, what,

when do you get out of your own way?

And that's the biggest thing is, you know,

you know, when do you think you're ready?

You know, it's like your

kids growing up, you know.

Should we really trust

them driving the car?

You know, cause now driving a car

is a lot big difference, right?

Just like a, a book that I read that

I'm, that holds near and dear to me is

a Monday morning leadership, um, where

they say there's a big difference.

Between being a driver

and being a passenger.

When you become that driver, you have

a lot of responsibilities to which is

where I challenged the leadership team

is now that you're a leader, you know,

how do you differentiate because you can

no longer do some of the things you were

doing when you were a passenger, right?

You can't check your cell phone.

You can't talk to the people in

the back by turning your head.

You know, you

got to keep your eye focused on the road.

So how do you keep that?

And how do you keep that in balance?

But the main thing for me is to, when

I, when I felt when they, you got to

make sure they're ready to blossom and

you got to ask them where they're at.

And that's like one of the things

that Bob had mentioned earlier,

, before regards to, uh, coaching up.

And then, find your replacement.

I was trained to do that as well

in the corporate world, right?

Every, every time you, every time,

wherever you go, you got to find

your replacement because if you're,

if you're being replaced, that means

somebody's growing and that means

you're growing somewhere else, right?

Where Austin came in from marketing.

, and he was our replacement as a CEO.

You may think that, Hey,

you know what, , he's young.

He doesn't know what he's doing.

. He's not done an inspection.

, so how does he know about

the inspection business?

Doesn't need to know about the inspection

business because he came in from the other

side of it from , a, new generation,

, where he can learn like things

that we didn't think about because,

we're, we're getting in our way.

So for our leaders, the biggest thing

for me was to get out of their way.

Make sure that we understand

that we trained them.

Well, we gave them all the information,

all the knowledge now, granted, there's

going to be times where they'll come

back to you and say, hey, you know,

here's what I think that's the biggest

thing is, you know, I always say,

don't come to me with a question.

Come with me with a thought.

Come with me with the entire thought.

Here's my questions, here's

what I think we should do.

And this is what we think, this is

where I think we'll end up, right?

So again, another part of Stephen

Covey, begin with the end in mind.

What's the focus?

You know, let's figure out,

why do you want this change?

And how do we go about this change?

And do we have the right

people for this change?

Because there was some times we didn't

have the right people in the right seats.

, we had to make that decision.

, but in, in regards to where they're at

now, they're, you know, you grow them,

you nourish them, and you challenge

them, and you set them on their way.

And, and all you can do is encourage,

you know, because I think we're, we're

very big on the encouraging side.

And that's, that's where I

think, uh, makes the difference

right now is teach them.

And then let them let them go and get out

of their way my short end of the story.

John and Connie: All

right.

we're,

If I may add just,

last thing John, that I think was pretty

impactful is, is transparency, right?

So with our leadership team, we made

a very clear decision probably two to

three years ago to be very transparent

with them as to where they are.

What are goals are this year

and what numbers we need to hit?

Where are failings right now in the

company that we need to focus on?

And so that level of transparency

demystifies the behind the scenes

a bit for the leadership team

and gives them more direct.

Information that they can take

action on to help drive towards those

goals and it's transparency in both

the good times and the bad times.

Like I said, last year was, um, it was

turning out to be a pretty rough year with

the way the market was going and we were

very transparent with our leadership team.

This is our cash runway.

This is how much time we have to start

figuring out how we're going to turn

things around before these conversations

are going to be different, right?

And not putting all the responsibility on

them, but empowering them to understand

where the company was at and encouraging

them, as Eddie said, to come up with

ideas because they're the ones on the

front lines now that are doing the

frontline business day in and day out.

And so they're our best source of coming

up with new ideas of how we're going to do

things differently and turn things around.

So I think it's everything Bob and Eddie

said, in addition to the transparency of

information that gives them the ability

to act independently , or act with,

, more of their own ideas that they can

bring to us versus the other way around.

John and Connie: Wonderful.

And thank you for clarifying that.

And I think that's the pride.

Okay, I think that

surprises them too, John,

that

John and Connie: are non

family members, right?

Non family members,

and it's almost top to bottom with

the company, and the thing of it

is, is one of the things that I hear

that I've never heard in any other

position I've had or that is, is the

owners of this company are so open.

And they, they care about us.

And, you know, I've been in

this ecosystem for 19 years.

So it's hard for me to get out and

see what what others are experiencing.

But to hear that from top down

in our company, you know, we've

got a good thing going on.

And as long as we let them feel

the same way, and they're a part of

it, we've got a really solid team.

John and Connie: Yes.

Yes.

Well, that transparency engenders trust

and, and that's, uh, you're really

extending that, uh, family bubble , in

that sense , to those, all your leadership

team, because in, within the family,

you kind of know, , all know each other's

stuff , and, you, and so, yeah, you can

protect your, the person, really personal

family stuff, , but by not protecting

, the, knowledge about the business, about

what's going on in the business you

just, you build, you extend that family.

That's, I love it.

Well, and ideas come from

very different places too.

Oh my gosh, yes.

Yeah, you know, that's Listening

to your, listening to your people.

Oh, exactly.

This is a master's class on how

to start a business and run it.

Congratulations to all four of you.

Yes.

For, for, for having the Moxie, so to

speak, of, of being able to pull this off.

This is amazing.

Well, and

thank you so much!

John and Connie: The theme, you know, the

consistent theme all through all four of

you has been about getting out of your own

way, getting out of other people's way.

And, it's all low ego, right?

Nobody's trying to defend their territory,

or their identity, and that's so huge.

Yeah.

And to

to all

to that point, I think about it, I

think I've thought about it, way back

when to now, you know, you got to look

at Mark, , when it was myself, Bob and

Austin and Mark was over there on the

East coast, managing the whole, , his

side of the company and his own, the

company himself, , so Mark has come from,

, running the entire company and then now

from a single owner to now, Oh my God,

I got to share my thoughts with Bob,

Austin, and, Eddie now, , and then to see

that that transition went through pretty

seamlessly, , is definitely , a testimony

, to his openness in regards to the merger

itself, because he could have just said,

no, I'm not going to listen to you guys.

I'm going to do it myself.

I've done it my way for how many years?

, but he knows that he

wanted to grow as well.

, because again, , we all have our limits.

And this is just, that was one of

the reasons why we decided to merge

and one of the reasons why, you know,

Austin had approached Bob, excuse

me, Mark, in that a few years ago.

John and Connie: You guys

are freaking amazing.

I'm so happy did this.

Yeah.

, I'm gonna thank, , Ryan, again, for

introducing us and inviting us to that

event because that's where Eddie and

I met and started this conversation.

Well, again, thank you so much

for joining us and, uh, and

giving us this hour of your time.

We appreciate that.

Look forward to letting you know when this

is published and then, help promote it

and bring more attention to your business.

Well, we're

very excited about it.

One of the reasons why I wanted to get

together, John and Connie, when you

first approached me in this regards

is, you know, share the story, um,

because if, if we don't share it,

you know, people won't hear about it.

, and when people , don't hear about

it, then, they don't get to learn.

My biggest thing is, , you touch

people's lives on a daily basis.

, what imprint do you want to

leave when you touch them?

How do you make them feel when they leave?

Do you make them feel good

about their approach to you?

Want to make them feel like the guy who

blew their horn at you at a red stoplight?

I want to be the positive side of it

And you know, my biggest thing is is

you know, be the change you want to

see that's been my biggest model Be

the change you want to see because

in order to do it well, you have to

do it every day You have to live it.

John and Connie: Lead by example.

I love it.

All right.

Well, I'm going to, uh, call

an end to our recording.