The Systems that Took a Restoration & Cleaning Business From 0 to 82 Locations

Summary

Episode Summary: The Systems that Took a Restoration & Cleaning Business From 0 to 82 Locations

Released on February 11, 2025, "To The Point - Home Services Podcast" by RYNO Strategic Solutions presents an insightful episode featuring Dan Claps, the CEO and co-founder of Vota Cleaning and Restoration. This comprehensive discussion delves into the strategic systems and operational frameworks that enabled Vota to expand from a single location to 82 franchise locations, offering invaluable lessons for home service businesses aiming for scalable growth.

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1. Introduction to the Episode

The episode begins with hosts Chris and Chad engaging in light-hearted conversation, setting a friendly and approachable tone. They briefly share personal updates and introduce the main topic: scaling a home services business through effective franchising systems.

2. Guest Introduction: Dan Claps

Dan Claps is introduced as a seasoned entrepreneur with a significant footprint in the franchise sector. As the CEO and co-founder of Vota Cleaning and Restoration, Dan brings a wealth of experience from his ventures with Franchise Playbook and the Franchise Founders Podcast.

Notable Quote:
"He's a mover and shaker and just a guy that gets done and he's growing and he's ambitious."
— Chris, [07:03]

3. Dan’s Early Entrepreneurship and Lessons Learned

Dan shares his entrepreneurial journey, starting with his teenage venture of selling his father’s bourbon collection. This early foray into business taught him essential lessons about supply and demand, pricing strategies, and the importance of understanding asset value.

Notable Quote:
"This was definitely my worst business venture... But this was definitely a lesson for me."
— Dan, [12:42]

4. Founding Vota Cleaning and Restoration

Dan discusses the founding of Vota Cleaning and Restoration, emphasizing the decision to enter the restoration and cleaning industry. The choice was driven by the desire to create a "need, not a want" business—ensuring consistent demand regardless of economic fluctuations.

Notable Quote:
"We wanted a need, not a want business... we wanted an industry that was non-skilled labor, where you could train people with a good attitude."
— Dan, [25:18]

5. Building the Franchise System: From 0 to 82 Locations

The conversation explores how Vota Cleaning and Restoration scaled rapidly through a well-structured franchise system. Dan highlights the creation of a comprehensive playbook that outlines operational procedures, ensuring consistency and efficiency across all franchise locations.

Notable Quote:
"We took a piece of paper, we called it our playbook and we said, what do we want out of a business?"
— Dan, [25:18]

6. Systems and Processes for Scaling

Dan elaborates on the critical systems that support the franchise’s growth, including standardized training programs, detailed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and hands-on leadership. Tools like Consumer Fusion for review management are integral to maintaining quality and accountability.

Notable Quote:
"We're never going to make you do it. We're going to try to get you to buy into it."
— Dan, [31:01]

7. Maintaining Brand Consistency Across Franchisees

Ensuring brand consistency is paramount. Dan discusses the balance between centralized systems and allowing franchisees some flexibility. Regular training sessions, daily meetings, and weekly town halls are pivotal in fostering a cohesive brand culture.

Notable Quote:
"The best answer I can give you is you try really hard to lean into training and you try really hard to get buy-in."
— Dan, [31:43]

8. Overcoming Challenges in Franchising

The episode addresses common challenges in franchising, such as adapting pricing strategies to different markets and ensuring adherence to brand standards. Dan emphasizes learning from early franchisees to refine processes and policies, acknowledging that growth comes with its set of obstacles.

Notable Quote:
"If someone doesn't do well, it's our fault. And if they do well, it's there."
— Dan, [00:00]

9. Operational Strategies: Training, Communication, Leadership

Dan outlines his multifaceted approach to operational excellence, which includes daily topical meetings, targeted sales training, and leadership development programs. These strategies cultivate a strong sense of community and mutual support among franchisees.

Notable Quote:
"Every day is a different topic. So Tuesdays is positive power... every Friday is a system-wide call, like a town hall."
— Dan, [33:49]

10. Recruiting and Talent Management for Franchisees

Recruiting the right talent is a significant focus. Dan discusses the challenges of hiring the right people and the importance of leadership traits among franchise owners. Programs like Talent Scout and offering phantom equity to key employees are strategies employed to attract and retain top talent.

Notable Quote:
"You're hiring the right people... a lot of our owners are fast to hire and slow to fire."
— Dan, [49:38]

11. The Role of Technology and Marketing Partners

Dan highlights the critical role of technology in managing franchises, referencing tools for review management and marketing automation. The partnership with Rilla is mentioned as a strategic move to enhance sales consistency and operational efficiency across franchisees.

Notable Quote:
"Rilla is just the tool for my team to train on... every sales interaction is very similar around what we say and how we deal with objections."
— Dan, [37:56]

12. Lessons Learned and Key Takeaways

Throughout the conversation, Dan shares key insights into effective franchising, such as the necessity of trust, continuous training, and adapting to feedback. The collective problem-solving approach among franchisees is highlighted as a strength that accelerates growth and innovation.

Notable Quote:
"If you had 82 really smart people working on a problem together, rowing in the same direction for a year, we had eight... 82 people all working together to figure out what's working."
— Dan, [41:03]

13. Conclusion

The episode concludes with Chris and Chad expressing their admiration for Dan's leadership and the success of Vota Cleaning and Restoration. They commend Dan for his strategic approach to scaling the business while maintaining a strong, cohesive brand culture, underscoring the importance of continuous learning and adaptability in business growth.

Notable Quote:
"You're walking the walk... you're a great human being... you are who you say you are."
— Chris, [53:33]

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Key Takeaways for Listeners:

1. Strategic Planning: Developing a comprehensive playbook with standardized procedures is essential for scalable growth.
2. Training and Communication: Regular training sessions and open lines of communication foster a strong franchise community.
3. Adaptability: Being willing to adjust strategies based on feedback and market differences is crucial for maintaining consistency.
4. Talent Management: Investing in recruiting the right people and offering incentives like phantom equity can enhance franchise success.
5. Technology Integration: Utilizing technological tools for operations and marketing can streamline processes and maintain quality across locations.

This episode serves as a valuable resource for home service business owners and entrepreneurs looking to expand through franchising, providing actionable insights and proven strategies from a successful industry leader.

Transcript

[Dan Claps]

Franchising is unique because if someone doesn't do well, it's our fault. And if they do well, it's there. It's like, on them. Like, it's like, why am I paying your royalty? What did you do when it goes well. But it's interesting that one of the things I've learned, and again, I'm just being candid, is I have owners that bought. Like, my first franchise owner knew exactly what he was doing, right? Like, it was like literally me and our VP of development at a dinner table, and we had no Z's and he knew what he was doing.

[Chad]

This is to the Point a Rhino experience voted one of the top home services, marketing and operations podcasts. Cutting through the and getting to the point.

[Chris]

What's up to the Point listeners. It's your boy Chris. And I got my co host, Mr. Chatty P in the place to be looking at me on ttp. Told you I should have been. I should have been a rapper. I could have been 23 savage. Not 20. You already took, you already took that role. But 23 savage. I feel like I could have been that.

[Chad]

Yeah, absolutely. We would have made, made a hell of a duo.

[Chris]

Yeah, I, I, I mean, I don't know about hell of a. But like, you know, mediocre. We, we could figure some things out. I mean, listen to Beasty Boys could do it. We could do it.

[Chad]

Surely.

[Chris]

Well, okay, listen, a couple things I want to share on this episode before we jump into, like, the actual, like, good and important stuff. You know, I wanted to give a quick update on some goals. You know, I'm a big goal planner, man. I like to achieve goals, putting all this stuff out there and, you know, I'm roughly just over a month into some chasing down some of my goals. One of them was I wanted to learn Spanish better. Spanish, right. So I've been, I downloaded the, the Babel app and I've been, you know, taking these Spanish lessons and like, learning some of the things. And that way I can have more than like, cerveza banos, you know, like, I can have more of an intelligent conversation if, because I, you know, in Mexico a fair amount. So I'd started to learn that a little bit. Progress is good, right? I've learned quite a few things, so I feel good. Like, I'm checking the box. So so far, January, I'm good to go on that, but I took one giant leap for mankind yesterday. Chad and I enrolled in a class at Purdue. See what I see how I tied that together there let's see that. Yeah. So for those who don't know, I am a huge Purdue fan, but did not get to go to school there because they didn't want me as bad as I wanted them. So in an effort to be alum, I took a graduate class. I signed up for it, and I should pass it with flying colors because it's digital marketing. Digital marketing and analytics. I just want to see what they're teaching the kids these days, Right. That are coming in, you know, into the business. So I'm gonna see if I can. If I can actually make it through it. But I had my meeting with the administrator yesterday. Dude, I'm in. Starts February 21st.

[Chad]

There you go.

[Chris]

Roll her up.

[Chad]

That's right. I'll put a.

[Dan Claps]

Put. When.

[Chad]

When do you graduate?

[Chris]

It's October.

[Chad]

October. All right, so I'll put it on the calendar. We'll be up there to. At the ceremony.

[Chris]

I don't know that there is a ceremony. I think it's just.

[Chad]

Yeah, we're gonna make one. We're gonna have one.

[Chris]

We're gonna have one on here. Okay. If I can graduate. If I don't graduate, then that means that I. I quit and I didn't accomplish it, and I should probably go back to figuring out what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life. Okay. So that's a real story. I haven't told Anna yet, so she'll find out here shortly. The commitment small. No big deal. Another quick thing, man. I'm excited because you and I are going to be at a conference together here in a few months, the Transform Conference down in. In Texas, as well as a couple of our buddies. You know, Tommy will be down there speaking at the same event. Mr. Chris Hoff want to be down there speaking at the event. Dude. But this will be the first time we're going speaking at a roofing focused conference together.

[Chad]

I know. I'm excited. Always good to talk to people in different trades and. And see what's going on and see what's working there that we can maybe pull over to what we're doing and vice versa. So, yeah, I'm really excited. Get down into Dallas. What's that? Second, second week of April, April 14th.

[Chris]

Through 16th is the residential side. Now he's doing a lot of. He's starting to break in quite a bit to home services because some of the stuff is applicable, which is why we're all coming down there. You guys are coming down there as well. It's gonna be great. It's. I Just had. I got off a meeting with them too, and. And he's done a great job of putting together a pretty good event, so I'm excited to go to it. So our guest is somebody that I met at the first franchise event I actually ever attended. And this was the Franchise Springboard Conference. And I don't remember where the hell it was, now that I think about it. Dan, where were we? Where was that conference? Isn't it East Philadelphia? Okay, so it was in Philadelphia. Clearly memorable. But best thing that came from that event was one, it was cool to kind of go and just watch how the franchise world, you know, just to learn about the franchise world from a different perspective, like in it, and then learn what Z's and Zor are. We'll talk about that. Now, Dan is in the franchise business. Been in the franchise business a long time. But hear me, this podcast is not about starting a franchise, okay? Not about starting a franchise. It's just about his journey and a lot of the things that he's done to build out his franchise, which is rapidly growing, that's applicable in really all businesses. So think general business, you know, multi location business, things like that. So quick intro on. My man Dan is. He's a chief executive officer, co founder of Vota Cleaning and Restoration. I know how important that part is to you. Dan, founder and chief executive officer of the Franchise Playbook, co host of the Franchise Founders Podcast, which is, dude, actually pretty good. I listened to it. It's you. You carry it, though. And then you've, you've. But you've been playing in the franchise world for, for quite a long time. And, and it's been, you know, I got to spend some good time with him at the Franchise Springboard Conference and just, you know, one, we just hit it off. We. We connected and, and I liked what he was doing and what he's building. He's a mover and shaker and just guy that gets, you know, gets done and he's growing and he's ambitious and like, just, you know, I liked him and so I. We create a good relationship and now we have the, you know, now we're honored to be able to be partnering with Voda as a, as a digital marketing partner at Rhino, which is awesome to help. Help his Z's out. But I want to give a nice, hearty, warm welcome to my friend, Mr. Dan Claps. You like that song? You've never heard that before in your entire life, have you?

[Dan Claps]

At first, I didn't realize what was going on, and then I realized what he was saying, so I gotta, I gotta start waking up to that. That's my alarm.

[Chris]

Well, if you listen to the rest of the song, it's got some additional meaning to it. But for the purpose of this, it actually worked because, you know, it's not clap, it's claps. Okay, Dan, welcome bro. Glad to have you on here finally.

[Dan Claps]

Well, thanks. Thanks guys for having me. It's funny little story, when we met, we hit it off, were at some lobby bar at this conference. And you know, whenever I go to network, I have two objectives. One, be nice to everyone, get to know everyone. You never know where things can go. And then two, build one to two deep relationships. I used to go to conferences trying to build a million, but now I try to build one to two. What I thought was interesting is I didn't know anything about you. I didn't know yet this company. I happen to have been on the mission to find a marketing partner. But you're very humble. So you invite me to go out. I'm like, let's go out, we'll grab dinner. And then you say to me, you know what, actually this event I'm at there is dinner. I said, okay, great. So I go to the event and I realize the event is the main event, which also happens to be your event. And I just thought it was funny because I'm like, wait a minute, who the hell did I just meet? And you know, rest is history. But it goes to show when you're networking, be nice to everyone because you never know who you're networking with.

[Chris]

Yeah. And. And actually it was like the end of, I think the party towards the end, it was a pretty great event too. And we had sponsored it and. But technically it was just. It's just an event, Dan. It's just an event that we attended together. But it was great. We had a fun night that night and we got to connect more. And he's built a great business, which is why he's on here. And I think Chad, you and Dan are pretty close in the same age. And, and it's just impressive, you know, because you know how it is, Chad, building in multi location, you know, multi services. And it's like a lot of. There's a lot of moving parts of that business. I mean, in that franchise world, that's a whole different beast. Dan, how many, how many actual Z's do you have now? Z's meaning franchisees. How many do you have now? Or at least locations? Let's start, let's go with locations.

[Dan Claps]

We have 82 franchise partners in the.

[Chris]

In the system. Got it. Okay. That's a lot of people, a lot of leaders to lead, right, brother? Now, one thing about you that I learned from listening to the episode that you did with Tommy, I think it was, like, middle of last year or something like that, maybe, was you kind of like me. Have you. You kind of knew coming into this world, like, you were an entrepreneur from, like, the lemonade stands to all that stuff. But one interesting story I heard about you and your entrepreneurship that I thought was great was the. You know, the. The little trial run you did with your dad's bourbon collection on selling your dad's bourbon. Wait, and you were a teenager, right? Like, and you thought, hey, you know, I think I could sell this bourbon. Like, maybe just share real quick with Chad. First off, anybody who knows me knows I am a bourbon collector. I have lots of really great bourbons. So when I heard your story, I cringe. And I've been wanting to know if you remember any of the actual bourbons that you sold, so that way I can feel your dad's pain. Oh, man.

[Dan Claps]

I sold everything. The bookers, the naker's mark. I had no idea. The story goes like this, Chad. So I've always been probably similar to you. Like, I've always had side hustles. When I was a kid, I had the lemonade stand, and then I would sell lacrosse balls to my teammate by buying them in bulk. And when I was in high school, my dad, you know, he was in business, and I guess in his corporate career, had earned a lot of really nice bourbons. And they were down in the basement, and they were dusty, and they were. I guess I always thought he forgot about them and they weren't any use to him, I thought. And so I. I started, you know, not super proud saying it now, but I started selling them out of my mailbox so people would come and they would buy the. The bourbon, and then I'd make.

[Chris]

I'd make money.

[Dan Claps]

I learned supply and demand because the prices change depending on when you were. When you were asking for them, who you were asking for it with. And. Yeah, then when one Christmas Eve, he went down and all the bourbons were gone, and I had to pay back all my profits because I had 100 profit margin on this. On this business, if you can imagine. No marketing, no supply costs, no cost of goods. So it was. It hurt when I had to pay that back.

[Chris]

There's a couple. There's a couple things that stand out to me real Quick. The glaringly obvious one to me is you're how old? How old at this age, Dan?

[Dan Claps]

Oh, man, I must have been like, you know, I don't know, 14, 15.

[Chris]

That's the glaringly obvious one to me is who. Who's buying from you. 14, 15 years old. And how do you notice? I mean, I guess you knowing who to sell to is one thing. I guess you must have just been like, out prospecting. Yeah.

[Dan Claps]

I mean, you're in high school. You know, this is my worst story, though. Beyond, like, this is my worst business venture. I've definitely cleaned up my act, stealing things and selling them. But this was. This was definitely a lesson for me.

[Chris]

Hey, this is part of the journey, man. You learned a valuable lesson, right? Yeah.

[Chad]

I'm just imagining your parents going over to, like, some friend's house.

[Chris]

Hey.

[Chad]

Yeah. Oh, where'd you get this nice bottle of bourbon? I've got one down in the basement, actually. Bought it off your son. It's. He's running quite the gamut over there. Like how that didn't come up before. He went down there to look and there wasn't anything left. I'm not really sure, but. That's awesome.

[Chris]

Got this nice bottle of Pappy I picked up for 20 bucks.

[Dan Claps]

We didn't have that. Middle class. Upper middle class, I guess. I'm not sure, but we didn't. It stopped at like makers, Mark.

[Chris]

Okay. Okay, good. That actually does make me feel better because otherwise I was just sitting there thinking like, damn, I wish I would have known you. Wish I had a 14 year old selling me. That was.

[Dan Claps]

That was the worst part about it. You know, we had no. You know, we were kid. I had no idea what they were worth. So. Yeah, not super proud of that. But I will tell you. Thanks, dad. Because it was definitely a shaping moment in my. My business career.

[Chris]

Shout out to your pops. Okay. Hey, listen, I want to get into the story. All right? We kind of got. We got. Got the, you know, got the ball rolling, but I almost forgot and then I didn't want to let you down. Chad, I almost forgot that I have a couple dad jokes.

[Chad]

Oh, boy.

[Chris]

Okay, Dan, you ready for this? I got a few dad jokes. All right. You don't have to laugh, don't feel obligated, but I have three I'm going to share. I'll work through real quick so that way we can get to it. Okay, Chad, you ready? This is very applicable to you specifically.

[Chad]

All right.

[Chris]

Why shouldn't you tell secrets in a cornfield?

[Chad]

I don't know.

[Chris]

Too many ears. Okay, next. That's a good Indiana joke, right?

[Chad]

That is. That's good. I'll probably never use that again.

[Chris]

Thank you. Thank you. Little people like that one. When he understands it. Why couldn't the bad sailor learn the Alphabet? Because he always got lost at C. Come on. That's pretty good. Unless I bombed on the delivery. I switched up the delivery a little bit. No. Okay, yeah, this last one.

[Chad]

All right.

[Chris]

All right. This week, while we're recording, this is waste Management open week game. You know what that is? Okay. It's a big, big golf tournament. Or a big golf tournament out here in Phoenix, Arizona called the Waste Management Open. It's huge. It's kind of like carb day at the Indianapolis 500. I'm assuming it's like the Kentucky Derby. I'm not sure. I mean, probably a little bit less fancy. But Chad, it's like pretty much, you know that you're coming out to it here in the next couple years. You have to, because it's like a card day.

[Chad]

Don't. Don't diminish carb day like that. I mean, that's a damn near holiday here.

[Chris]

That's fair. That's fair. I apologize to all my Indiana folks listening. I'm sorry. But in honor of the Waste Management Open that on the week recording. This is coming up this week, actually, it's already happening. Why did the golfer bring two. Two pairs of pants? Casey got a hole in one. Okay, listeners, thank you. Thank you for listening to my dad jokes. You know, some of you have actually used some of these dad jokes already. You know you have. Okay, so don't act like I'm just up here telling you jokes. You don't care. You're using them. And you're welcome. And so are you. Chad and Dan, guess what? Now you have a few in your bag of tricks too. Okay, let's get to the good. Hey, this guy. Damn, man. You have what? I can't remember exactly where it was, but it was like you got it. You got this award for being one of the fastest growing franchise. One of the fastest growing franchise ores. Or is it franchise in general? And I don't know if it was like in the US or whatever it was. But the point is, is like you're building this thing and growing it fast. So you're doing some right. And not you didn't. You know, it's not just from me meeting you and liking you. It was actually like, hey, you're we. Yeah, I do like you. But I Also understood the talent that you had and then saw what you were building. And clearly somebody else has recognized the same thing. What was that? I wasn't like that long ago that I just read it. Well, we've won. Yeah.

[Dan Claps]

Thankfully we've won a variant amount of awards this year. It's funny, I've. I don't think I've been there for, for any of them because I, at the time and I happened to travel somewhere or something would change. We've won some awards for our growth. My favorite award is we wanted to work franchisor of the year at one event which was based on not just growth, but like in overall culture and, and other statistics. So it's, it's been a great year. We started franchising in April of 2023. So between then and now, we've, we've grown to 82 owners and, and, and growing continually. What I will point out, and I think it's important and we'll get into. In the episode is we're growing the exact rate we had set out to. Not any slower, not any faster. I really do believe in the idea of reverse engineering your goal from 20 years, 10 years out, and then working back into the daily goal. And, and we've eerily hit our goals on the nose from day one, which has been, which has been pretty cool. Yeah.

[Chris]

And I'll be interested to hear like how you're accomplishing that or like what you're putting in place to do that. Because I see, you know, that you, I mean, I thought I traveled a bunch. You quadrupled the volume that I travel and I'm so grateful for that. Actually makes me feel good about myself when I just watch where you're going all the time because it's never ending for you. But let's do this. Let's take just a quick step back because we have an idea of where you're at right now. But you also kind of came from this franchise lead gen guy, you know, days that you spent and being able to connect franchisors to potential franchisees. Right. And then also kind of into the actual lead generation business of bringing in lead volume kind of world that I've been in. How the hell did you end up in the actual. Like I have. How did you end up, you know, being a franchisor and, and, and what made you pick cleaning and restoration or did it pick you?

[Dan Claps]

Sure. Well, first thing I'll say is, you know, as an entrepreneur, I am really big on. You find a problem and you create a solution. And then you find the person that can solve that solution and, and bring them into the team. Right? And so you know Richard Branson, he's the billionaire that billionaires want to be because he's not just rich, he's also got lots of time. So one of my favorite sayings that he says is go find the number two person at the number one company and ask them to come work with you as your partner. And so that's always been my kind of, I've always had someone in my, my business that, that is better than me. And so backstory. In college, I graduated from the bourbon business to a more legitimate business, which was in the staffing and recruiting. I was a college. I remember people saying, you know, you got to go to college, you get a good job. I never heard you got to go to college to get a, to own a great business. And so my focus in college was always on, was on my side business or side hustle, which then eventually grew into a business. In my early 20s, I didn't want to do that business anymore and I wanted to sell it. I learned that I didn't have an asset at all. I always tell people I can teach you how to run a business because I could teach you how to not run a business. If someone wrote a book like, you know, how to not run a business 101, they could make my college business like the, I could be the star of the book because I had no systems, I had no people, I had nothing. It was just me working seven days a week. And so in my early 20s, I started looking at, you know, franchises. My dad said, what about franchises? It kind of stood out to me because they're all about systems and processes. And so in 2014, ended up joining a franchise system. I looked at home services, but at that time I couldn't afford a home service business. So I, I got into a, a business brokerage. So you help people buy and sell businesses. And that was in 2014. I did that for about two years. And in 2016, I looked in the mirror and I realized that I again was building like a self employed business, not a business. I was the business. And I distinctly remember being on a vacation. I was supposed to have one day off. Like it was like a weekend trip, you know, and everyone took the Monday off. This is probably my first day off in like a year. And everyone's out on the beach, you know, playing beach volleyball, having a good time. And I'm in the room looking out the window on the phone and you might be like, well, you're working from the beach. No, this was supposed to be my only day off that, like, you know, whatever amount of time. And I realized that I was a slave to my business. Like, if I didn't answer the phone, then I didn't make money. And so I ended up leaving that and realized that in everything I had done, it was all about lead generation. I was good at getting people to want to use my services. And so 2016, started a lead generation company in the franchise space and then grew that for almost seven years till 2022, until it was acquired by private equity.

[Chris]

And now here you are.

[Dan Claps]

Yeah, that's the. That's the backstory. And then, you know, one day I, you know, I had a pretty nice life, and I said, let me screw it up and. And start a franchise company. No, in all seriousness, knew I wanted to be a franchisor. I've. Since I'm 22, my whole business has centered around helping people get into business for themselves. And so what I love about what I do is I don't just help them get in the business, but I go through the entire. And trust me, it's emotional, the entire emotional roller coaster that 82 different franchise owners go through the highs and the lows, and I really enjoy seeing them come through that to the. The other side.

[Chris]

Did you say since 22? Because you're not 22. I thought I heard.

[Dan Claps]

I started at 22 years old. Since I was 22 years old.

[Chris]

Got it. Okay. But you're. You were mid-30s now. Right, right. 32. Okay. That's low. 30s. Whatever. Dear God. Youngsters. Chad, you. Can you listen. Chad's old compared to you. I'm old compared to Chad. Oh, God. Okay, well, listen, it takes a special kind to want to be a Zor, especially, you know, one who is growing at the pace you are, because you have all of these leaders or people that you need to be leaders in these individual locations, and they're trying to scale and grow, and you're the one and get them to follow the SOPs and like, all this stuff. And you're probably, you know, in. In a constant firefighting position, I'm assuming, you know, because there's lots of variables in. Across all these different locations. But. But why. What made you end up choosing the cleaning and restoration business, by the way? Like, you know, you know, this because we, you know, Rhino has worked in the restoration business with other, you know, franchisors, and it's actually a great business. So, like, there's a lot of A lot of upside on that side, but, but the unique thing about yours is the cleaning and restoration has set, has set you apart from a lot of the other competition. But why, why, like why did you pick cleaning and restoration?

[Dan Claps]

Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting. When someone started to franchise business, they typically have succeeded in roofing or plumbing or whatever business they were in and Jim. And then they want to franchise it and which is great, but they go into a completely new business. Right. Being a franchisor supporting franchise owners is totally different than the actual business. And so it's given me a unique lens. Being a franchise executive entrepreneur in restoration, not a restoration owner that went into franchising. We have great people on the team that, that have that, that restoration experience. But when I was looking at what to do next before, between myself and our, our co founder and, and my team, we, we really just, we took a piece of paper, we called it our playbook and we said, what do we want out of a business? And we wanted these things. We wanted a need, not a want business. Something that wasn't affected by, you know, change in the economy or, you know, at that time we're thinking about the pandemic. We wanted a business that a third party paid. So in our case, insurance pays the bills. I always think of the movie War Dogs, uh, the government's paying the bills. Like in this case, the insurance pays the bills. We wanted an industry that was non skilled labor, like something where, where, where you could train people with a good attitude. And then finally we wanted an industry where the, the human economics, no matter what, made sense. Like if I go to ria, there's plenty of people doing phenomenal in that, that industry. Same like roofing H Vac. Right. So for us, restoration really screamed out. But the negative is, you know, unless I, you know, stick a hose through Chad's window there while he's sleeping and flood his office, I can't make him, you know, dry A, a dry office. Right. It's, it's a need, not a want. And so the fact that we do the floor cleaning, which, you know, floors, tile, brow upholstery, etc, gets us in the door with property managers in the door of plumbers, gets a recur, I want to say recurring, but a predictable revenue stream. And, and that's really what is separating us from a franchise perspective.

[Chris]

Got it. Hey Chad, did you hear him talk, say drawing? You know what that made me think of immediately? No. Your buddy that has that business of he puts those dryers in for after the floods or flooding and things like that happen and how successful business has been.

[Chad]

Yeah, they crush it. He says I'd make a whole ton of. A whole ton more money if I didn't have to rebuild it, because that's where the tough part comes in. If I could just dry stuff out and, you know, pick up my fans when it's dry, I'd be crushing it. But then they want me to rebuild it. And that's where you got subs and construction timelines and getting paid by insurance and all that fun stuff.

[Chris]

Yeah, I can't remember if that was your buddy or what. I remember you telling me that story.

[Dan Claps]

Optics thing too. You're excited when your house gets dried during the emergency. But the, you know, how construction is, the rebuild is always. People are not as happy with that experience.

[Chad]

Yeah, I got a question. So on the, on the, when you started it, you know, like you said, most people, they have a business, they know how to operate it, all of that stuff. What was kind of the, the foundation for being able to scale kind of the sops and different things like that and, you know, did you build like one particular location? And this can be kind of the model and then that gives, you know, the franchisees like a, you know, a basis for what they're getting into. How, how did all that kind of initial kind of build out look?

[Dan Claps]

Yeah, well, when we knew we wanted to be in restoration, between my, myself and, and our coo, who, who was running a home service brand in a different space, in the kitchen, remodeling space for over 10 years, he was president of that franchise chain. We knew we wanted to get into restoration. We found an incredible founder who's a partner in the business now. His name is Dragon and it's, yes, Dragon, like, like a Dragon. He's Serbian and it's pronounced differently, but he goes by Dragon. He built this incredible business in Northern Virginia, started it in 2009. True American dream. Moved here from Serbia, didn't speak any English. In 2004, was a lifeguard, then a security guard, got married, started cleaning carpets, like literally himself, and just built this incredible, you know, you know, multi million dollar business in 15 years of trial and error. And so when we partnered with the business, made the acquisition, we had someone that had done the work. Like, because I listen, I'll be the first tell you, my franchise owners and your listeners, I haven't extracted water and, and I understand that, you know, being a little bit different. I have a different lens. We have Dragon and, and some of our other members of the team that have been there and done that and grown from, you know, a hundred thousand the first year, whatever, you know, we're doing now. And so there was that foundational business, and then we, we took that and started franchising it.

[Chad]

That's awesome. One other question I had, so, you know, I think Chris touched on this a touch or a little bit. Is, you know, with 80, would you say 82, you know, franchisees, how do you look? I think one question I get a lot is, you know, we've got multi locations, not nearly as many as that. But, you know, I think the difficult part is, especially with a franchise model, you got all these process, procedure, kind of the culture that you want to, you know, kind of exude from the brand and all of that stuff. How do you go or how do you think about that? I know when people ask me, it's not so much like, how do you do it? There's a lot of elements of that, but, like, how do you think about that as far as, like, hey, this is the brand. This is what we wanted to represent. Now how do I get 82 people all across the country to do that?

[Dan Claps]

Yeah, it's challenging. Couple things, couple things. I'll tell you. And I'm. I'm from New Jersey originally. I'm very direct and, you know, people listen to this that don't know me. I'm sure my franchise owners will listen to this too. I just say when. I mean, and I'll say it to anyone, if they're listening, I would tell them the same thing. It's challenging because when you first start, people buy in and they're completely different than the people at 82 owners. Right? The people coming in with 82 owners, there's a lot more of a track record, and I feel like they're a lot more willing to follow the process. Typically, the earlier owners who. First of all, just to be clear, we wouldn't be anywhere without them. I love working with them. They're in a different position where they start with us and, you know, we've had bumps. I mean, I would be. You'd be crazy to say we haven't had bumps and we'll have more bumps. And so, you know, you definitely have some scars because we learned together certain things. So, you know, give you an example. You know, everyone could tell you that it's different, but it is true. Pricing changes in each market, you know, you want to believe that the pricing is going to be able to be the same, but in Northern Virginia and another market, they are different. And so we had to learn those things together with, with our franchise owners and still have to learn it. To answer your question around brand consistency, the best answer I can give you is you try really hard to lean into training and you try really hard to lean into getting buy in. I think maybe it's different when you're a 20 year old system with thousands of locations, but when you're a younger system like this, I think it's difficult to say, well, you know, Chad, you signed this agreement that you'd say you do it this way. I would say our business owners, their franchise owners. And what does the bottom of their business card say? It says owner. They bought a business, they're not an employee. And so what we try really hard to do is say like, look, this is the way we know works really well or we believe works really well. We're going to try really hard to get you to believe in that too. But we're never going to make you do it. We're going to try to get you to, to buy into it. Does that make sense?

[Chad]

Yeah, no, that makes total sense. I mean, and I think that's about the only way you can go about it. I think sometimes people feel like, well, if I go to multi location, I've got to, you know, be there every day and I've got to, you know, do that and that's not sustainable. And so I think that there's, to your point, there's certain pillars that you lean into. Whether that's training, here's the values, here's the brand, this is what we stand for. And you're hoping to find the right people who believe in that as well and can carry out that mission. It may look slightly different, but I think that as you scale you've got to be okay with it not being so just uniform and rigid and everything like that or else you're going to stunt your growth.

[Dan Claps]

Yeah. Just one more thing to add to that is you're exactly right. You have to give up a little bit of, of control and then you put systems and controls in place. So give you an example. Up until recently we use a program called Consumer Fusion for review management and I love them and I get all the reviews to my inbox and they go into a folder and then recently I actually changed it where I only see the three and below star reviews because it's exciting to see five stars but like that's great, that should be the norm. And so now I'm always looking for did we get a three star which doesn't really happen often, but if we did, that's the stuff I'm really trying to focus in on. But it's trial and error. You know, you have a franchise owner that, you know, stops taking their shoes off when they go into a home or know things like that, and you just have to con. Constantly train and iterate on why it's important in the small details.

[Chris]

Yeah, I have a. I have a. A thought around this because it is unique because they're all owners, right? But you. You have to be all marching, you know, in the same direction, at least, you know, unlike Chad, you know, you should be able to hear the beat and march to the same beat. Chad's a little off, but it's because he, he. I mean, there's much rhythm. As much as he loves, you know, Justin Timberlake, he's. He's got no rhythm, but he marched through the beat of his own drum. Seems to be working out okay. But you still have to get, you know, everybody rowing in the same direction as you. And these are owners, which you are, you know, you call that. And they're owners, like, they're right. They're just. They're owners who bought into a system and process that you have created, that you've proven that works. And you're trying to guide them down the direction, you know, to up to scale the business based off the playbook that you've got in place that constantly is probably improving, as you've learned, I'm guessing. But you have to. I mean, you have to have some sort of regular, you know, some regular cadence with these owners, these leaders, to get them to be better leaders, because some of them probably aren't leaders at all. You know, like there's a difference there. And as there's. Businesses are scaling, you need them to be also good leaders. So are you doing some sort of regular, ongoing, like, leadership training with these owners?

[Dan Claps]

Yeah, it's a great question. So what we do, a little bit unique from other franchisors. And I Little curious why more don't do this because it's. It's not super difficult to execute. But I guess it's because we've started this way foundationally. And so people have just all kind of. This has been the norm, if you will. But as a system, we meet every. Unless it's a, you know, Christmas or something, we meet every Tuesday, every Wednesday and every Friday, once a day, and each day is a different topic. So Tuesdays is positive power where we just go over, like, you know, wins and and sales training and the basics over and over and over. We do a segment on Lead and Thrive every other week, which is all centered around building culture and leading people. Every Wednesday is just sales training for anyone that wants to join on a script. Constantly, you know, working rebuttals with like breakout sessions, etc. And then every Friday is a system wide call, like a town hall. And candidly, the reason we've been able to grow is that that Friday call, because I'm big with the idea of quick to conflict. And a lot of those Friday calls are phenomenal. Sometimes they're not right. If we have a big issue as we grow, they come right to head on those calls. And I'm not afraid to sit on that call and hear it, you know, and so I think it's that camaraderie we have between those calls, those, those very frequent cadences as well as our conferences together. And then we're constantly communicating through Microsoft Teams. Like the whole system is on one channel and there's just constant like reminders and things like that going on every day.

[Chad]

Yeah, I think I'll add to that because I know that we started a. My COO does a town hall at once a month with all the, all the field professionals. And it has led to a lot of really positive things. I think as you get spread out and you get bigger, there's a lot of, you know, kind of, we call it dumpster chatter because that's usually where it happens at our places, out by the dumpster after the meeting, you know, ah, that guy's full of crap. He doesn't know what he's talking about. This. Can you believe this? And I think it's just giving people a forum to one, everything's not criticism. A lot of the times it's just misunderstanding of like, oh, well, I didn't even realize we had that, or I can't believe this policy. Well, no, it's actually not like that. Like you actually use it like, oh, okay, well, that's good. And, but it takes kind of that one voice to kind of clear up those things where a lot of times you, you just let all of these issues, you know, fester and people are complaining about things that aren't even true.

[Dan Claps]

I, I completely agree. And just feeling heard too, right? This big. Like you just want to feel heard and get buy in. I mean, that's, that's the, that's how you do it. To me, where do you lose the most continuity? I think it's in the sales encounters. I think it's in the. The sales presentations. And so not to, like, shamelessly plug them, but I see Rilla's a sponsor, and on here. I mean, I just invested, you know, know, 100 licenses with Rilla on Friday night. And by the way, those guys who want to learn s. Selling, they're great at selling. Like, they made sure to get me signed.

[Chris]

And.

[Dan Claps]

And I mean that in a good way, like, in a compliment. Like, they. They do. They. They. They take their own preaching and they use it. But I think that's a big part. Like, we're trying to roll that out now. But I will tell you what I learned about Rilla that's really clicked for me. If. If you gave me a scientific calculator and asked me to do calculus, I can't just do calculus because you gave me a calculator. Right? It's. It's a tool. Rilla. I think I first looked at Rilla as, like, the trainer, and I've come to realize that it's just the tool for my team to train on. But we're really trying to get to the point where. And I don't know if I ever accomplished this, but every sales interaction is very similar around, like, what we say and how we deal with objections. That's something we're trying to get more consistent with.

[Chris]

Okay, I have a question. I'm gonna take you back for a minute. So your very first location was. Was where?

[Dan Claps]

Texas. In Dallas, Texas.

[Chris]

Dallas, Texas. Okay, so how. Well, okay, two parter one. How long was it before you brought on your second. Your. Your second Z?

[Dan Claps]

Yeah, we did something unique. Our first two Z's were neighboring to each other, so our first two franchise owners were in Dallas. And actually, we built out Texas. We had seven owners in Texas before we really expanded, and people don't know that part of the story. We had, you know, a lot going on in. In that market. First, I will share something. It's interesting. Franchising is. Is unique because if someone doesn't do well, it's our fault. And if they do well, it's there. It's, like, on them. Like, it's like, why am I paying you royalty? What did you do when it goes well. But it's. It's interesting that one of the things I've. I've learned, and again, I'm just being candid, is I have owners that bought. Like, my first franchise owner knew exactly what he was doing, right? Like, it was like, literally me and our VP of development at a dinner table, and we had no Z's, and He knew what he was doing. And then I, as I went a little bit further, I have had owners that, I mean, again, our systems are phenomenal, and they've come beyond what you can imagine from when we first started. But I did have some owners that were like, you know, I don't know, they were like the 10th franchise owner, and they're like, where's the national accounts? And I'm like, you met me in a diner. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it was clear that we're growing and where we're going is. Is substantial. But we started in Texas. We worked with that franchise owner. And by the way, the franchise owners that get into a system, any system, under, you know, 50 owners, let's say those are true entrepreneurs, they're true pioneers. And what I'll leave you with is all of our relationships have been working together, understanding that it's not going to be perfect and that we're going to grow through it together, just like you guys have done in your businesses.

[Chris]

Yeah, I think what I was. What I was, you know, I mean, that all makes sense. I think what I was hoping to get from that is, you know, when you. When you have your first, you know, 10 z's, and now you get to this next batch of 20 owners, like, what do you. Are you learning, like, immediately in this thing that you're making, like, major shifts, little shifts, like, what's your, you know, theory on? You probably caught some things that you had to fix, and you can't do all the shit at the same time. So you probably had to, like, plan, you know, get the plan, you know. But what. How was that process from, you know, your first one or two or whatever to, like, the next batch of owners?

[Dan Claps]

So I have 82 really smart people in this system. I'm going to ask you a question. To answer your question. If you had 82 really smart people working on a problem together, rowing in the same direction for a year, we had eight really smart people working on the problem. Which one do you think would solve the problem better and faster? 82 or 8?

[Chris]

8 think so? I do. Mainly because that's a lot of chiefs. If I have 82 chiefs versus eight chiefs, like, they can get to an answer faster. Fair enough.

[Dan Claps]

Chiefs in my mindset is with 82 owners, like, we're working through problems at a rapid pace because it's 82 people all working together to figure out what's working, what's not working and growing. And so I found that that is. Is the. The number one thing because the other thing is, like, if you're a franchise owner, and I completely understand this, you're not always going to listen to the franchise company. A lot of times you're going to listen to your fellow franchise owners. And so we found that that community that we've built, they work together to help each other too. And it's not just like corporate franchisor. It's, hey, I'm a peer. I've been in the same position as you six months ago, and here's what I would have done differently. And that, that is kind of growing exponentially as we grow.

[Chris]

Yeah, that makes sense. No, go ahead.

[Chad]

Oh, I was just gonna ask. You know, I get asked this question a lot, and I think it's something that we battle through. And, and we've, we've had different strategies at different levels. What from, from a franchisor perspective, have you, have you kind of centralized, like, hey, we can gain some bandwidth if we do this centrally versus maybe not. And then also kind of the second part of that. Are there things that you may have thought at first we need to decentralize and then brought them back in after you kind of. Is there an example of that? I know we have some where we were like, oh, this is better. Is that one of your questions? Sorry there, buddy, I'm going to take it. But, but yeah, just kind of the, the maybe just the kind of your thoughts around kind of what to centralize, when to centralize. Has any of that changed over time?

[Chris]

Great question, Chad. Great question.

[Dan Claps]

Yeah, it is a great question. I mean, obviously, like, you know, technology around the CRM and project management, et cetera, that is all it's important to be be centralized. Our call center is centralized to a degree. Something we shifted was there are owners that want to answer the phone themselves or hire someone on their team to do it. And while I don't think an owner should answer the phone, I do understand the desire to when you first start. And so we do have flexibility and we have varying, different versions of that. So it's like, listen, if you want to have you and your team answer, but if you don't in the first, you know, two rings, let's have it go to the call center, or some people are fully on the call center. There's these varying versions. I think, I think that's been a good move. So centralized to partly centralized is what we did there. I think the marketing is a really good one. I just on a phone call with with Chris earlier today, and as we build our partnership, we Started out with a centralized. This is the marketing partner that you use. This is our vendor. And we found that that is not the way to do it. It's great from an economy, a scale perspective, and I'm working with the partner. But the challenge with it is kind of twofold. One, I know if I was in a franchise, I don't want to have only one option. I would like to have multiple options. And so we, we really like giving multiple options, but not a buffet of options. You know, three, four options that all make sense and then let the data tell us which one works best. We have had experiences where we had one vendor, and I remember getting on the phone with one vendor saying, you know, it's supposed to be that we get special treatment because of the size that we are. I feel like you guys are treating us like low on the totem pole because, you know, they have to use you. And we were getting less service than other companies. And so I've really become big on this idea of two or three vendors in each area. I think of the movie Whiplash. I don't know. You've seen it. It's like the drummer. The guy's always yelling at him. Or sports. You got a, you know, second string. I think it's important to have that degree of competition between our, Our partners.

[Chris]

Yeah, I think that's part of your responsibility though, right? Is to. Because, I mean, it's. That's part of what they're buying into is you are vetting that process and those partners for them. So. And you can only fuck that up so many times where they don't believe you anymore. Right. Like, you lose that trust. Exactly what you were just talking about earlier. Because I'm, I'm. I'm also a fan of being an option and earning it. I told you that I'm a. Basically have to do that forever at this point. So I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.

[Dan Claps]

I had too many energy drinks. But I'll just to add on that, you know, one more point. Like, on the marketing side, one of the things I'm challenged with is no matter what the expectations on marketing, if you've never owned a business, it's, it's, you know, it's hard to kind of wrap your head around that. Like, it's not always the lead's fault that leads aren't converting. I was talking to a franchise owner in a different system on the weekend, and I was pretty fascinated because he's a friend of mine and he's super, super successful. And we were talking about like, LSA ads. And he's like, I need a different and. And if you're listening, sorry, man, I'm calling you out here. But he was like, you know, I need a different LSA provider. And I was talking to him, why? And next. Because there's not much you could do with lsa, you know what I mean? There's only so much you can change. And we realized that. I was like, dude, like, your guys aren't answering the phones. Like, that's why LSA is not working. It's not the vendor. And so there's a lot of that that we have to do. That's what I love about Rhino, because you guys have all the call recording metrics, but that's a big part of our job is, is the education on expectations.

[Chris]

Chad, did I cut you off? I thought you were say something earlier.

[Chad]

No, I mean, I think he's exactly right. I mean, we've talked about this umpteen dozen times over the last couple of months. Is, you know, it's not always. It's not always marketing's fault. A lot of it. They can get the phone to ring, but what do you do? There's a lot of steps. There's a lot more steps after the phone rings to making sure that you get an ROI on that call.

[Chris]

Hey, I want to. I want to pivot real quick because we're getting close to LA to this last topic around recruiting for your Z's, or how you help recruit for your Z's as they scale and they grow. Because you were in that game. It was just in recruiting is in a lot of ways I've always thought of. It's kind of like sales, right? Like you're trying to go out and find, you know, and, and sell someone on coming to work for your. The best talent and sell someone to come and work for your business or location. And I've never been in recruiting, but that's the way I, I envision it going. But, you know, as this thing scales, you know, also a. A box you got to check is helping them find good talent, you know, and, and you want that as the, as the franchisor. But, like, what are you doing to help these guys, you know, fill, you know, find the talent to help grow these things? Like, is there some sort of process you have in place for them? And I mean, are they. Do they have any ownership in it? Are you running you and your team at Vota, you know, on the executive level, running all that stuff? Or what are you guys doing to help them, you know, find good talent.

[Dan Claps]

Yeah, it's a great question. We have a program called Talent Scout to help find people at the end of the day, who they hire and what they pay. And all those things are completely on the owner because there are actually joint employer laws and franchising that don't allow us to get too involved in the hiring. What I would tell you my biggest challenge with this is, and you guys know this from your years in business, is hiring people is not checking the box. You're not hiring someone to check the box. You're hiring the right people. And a lot of our owners are fast to hire and slow to fire. You know, the opposite of that, you know, old saying. So I'm always challenged by that because, man, I can't tell you I hate letting people go and I've a fault at people for way longer than I should. And if there's anything I've learned, after 10 years, I finally still struggling with it, I've learned to make those changes. And so that's my. I know it's not really answer your question, but the recruiting side's challenging because, you know, at the end of the day, you could take your time hiring people you don't really know until they come into the system, into your. Into your company. And I wish I could get owners to make those changes a little bit faster when they know it's the wrong person. That's something we're trying to figure out. But as far as recruiting, we definitely have the, the ads, the way that we know will work and the comp models that we suggest doing. I'm really big on giving equity out if they're able to. If the owner's willing to do some type of phantom equity to their key stake, key holders. But we have a whole program to help them with that.

[Chris]

Yeah, phantom equity is. Is interesting. I mean, because I remember we kicked her, kicked that whole idea around with key leadership. You know, phantom equity is definitely different than equity. So. But there's. Yeah, I see what you're trying to do there. You're trying to get like. And we're not talking like, we're talking like talent, talent like somebody who's a leader in this business. Come in. So you're having those conversations with somebody who can actually impact the business. That's what you're talking about.

[Dan Claps]

Yeah, like you've got this great business development, you know, person in your town that, you know, working for another company in restoration or in cleaning or something, and you want to bring them in well, why would they come work for your brand new business if they don't have upside? They're taking a risk. They should get upside. You know, when we started Vota, I did the same thing. My leadership team, you know, we're all, you know, have a stake in the company. And I don't know, to me, a lot of people that get into Vota, like, they've done well. They're not just doing this to make money. They also want to know, enjoy what they're doing. And I think working with people that actually, you know, care about your business because they actually have a stake in it is just a hell of a lot more fun. And if you do it from the beginning, it's. It's not always perfect. But there's. I know for me, like, my team, like the fact that we did this thing together when everyone doubted us, between my COO and CMO and VP of development and the founder, there's this camaraderie that we have that I don't think I'll ever find again because we built it from the ground up. There's just something special about that.

[Chris]

Yeah, man, I. I agree. And like, this is not for the week. It is a. It is a hard thing to do to build these things. And like I said with you, the thing that's most interesting to me about you and just franchising in general, or franchisors in general, is just leading these owners. Like, that seems. I mean, listen, it takes a special person, someone who really, you know, cares, you know, about, you know, these individuals and willing to help them, which is why you're all over the place all the time. Like, I commend you. Like, you are who you say you are. Like, I see. I see you flying all over the place and doing all these things. So, like, you're walking the walk. I don't think I have any. I mean, listen, I. We're kind of at the top of the hour. I told you guys I would be done by then. But, you know, there's. I had a couple other questions here, but they're gonna. The are going to have longer answers to them, but these are things that I want to just, you know, have a little conversation with you about maybe while you're out at a Rhino X, because I'm excited you're coming to your first Rhino X stand and. And you are going to have quite a good time. I just shared with Chad earlier today who the entertainment is, because I knew he'd be like, you know, falling out of a seat, you Know just in awe of who the concerts are. Concerts. Yeah.

[Chad]

I already got the playlist rocking, so watch out.

[Chris]

Yeah, Rhino X playlist. I should be, I should be creating one of those and sharing it now. I just thought about that. Wait, let's make note of that, team. All right, let's. Let's create a Rhino X playlist. We will be revealing the, the artists ahead of time. I originally was going to keep it a secret the entire time, but I can't, so I'll be revealing it. But, Dan, listen, man, like, I know that you are still just kind of like, in a lot of ways just getting rolling with this thing and you're doing a hell of a job, dude. And I think you're a great, a good human being if you guys can tell a little bit. You know, his. He's a good, good. He's a good dude. Genuinely cares about growing this thing the right way, not just building this thing to make money. Sharp guy. Like, we didn't even get to half the that that we could have talked about in here to kind of, you know, share some of your talent and your knowledge, you know, But I'm, you know, I'm glad to get you on here finally and brag on you a little bit, you know, and I'm glad to get you to Toronto X, you know, and, and you're getting, you're going to get to meet a lot of really sharp people there. And I know you're constantly a student. That's half the, you know, the game that we're all in is constantly learning. You're going to learn some from some really exceptional, you know, contractors that have been doing it a long time in there that I know you'll take back and, and implement in the business.

[Dan Claps]

Appreciate you guys having me on. If that's your way of saying I was long winded, I, I know. I'm guilty of that, especially with the little caffeine in me.

[Chris]

It's actually Chad, he's the problem. He's always just a talker. He's just been known as the talker his entire life.

[Chad]

Yeah. No, but Dan, I really appreciate you coming on. I, I've, I've always been interested in kind of the franchise space and how we can take, you know, especially as it relates to process and procedure, how we can take that and, and even though we may not be a franchise, it's, it's still business and, you know, maybe business that, you know, leans heavier on kind of the process and procedure which will benefit any type of business. So appreciate you sharing kind of your journey and, you know, what you've been doing and. And all those things.

[Dan Claps]

Absolutely. Guys, pleasure to join you today.

[Chris]

All right, listeners, well, you know, hit them up on social media. You can find them just about anywhere. You do a fantastic job with your social team. Like a ton of video clips and stuff like that. So kudos to you. I watch them mainly because they pop up in my feed all the time because you do them. So it works between you and Tommy. Algorithm figured out between you and Tommy. I see a lot of you sons of. That's a term of endearment I use, listeners. I think you know that about me. All right, guys. Well, I appreciate you guys hopping on here, giving me your time. Listeners, you don't got to do everything, but you got to do something. No. Zero days.