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Hi.

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Today we're celebrating Ken and

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Lisa Jordan of Accent American Inc.

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Cleaning and Disaster Restoration.

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Hi, Ken and Lisa.

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How you doing?

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How are you?

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Wonderful.

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How are you?

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Good.

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We're so excited you're joining us today.

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This is, this is going to be fun.

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We're excited to be here.

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Thank you.

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So, how did your business get started?

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Uh, Disaster Restoration, that sounds

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like a big, Well, first of all, I, I

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started a carpet cleaning business.

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I worked my way, I majored in business

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and finance and I worked my way

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through school and, uh, was a bouncer

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and checked out a bunch of jobs

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and nobody was paying decent money.

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I mean, uh, Kmart offered me a job

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out of college, 18, 000 a year to

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start and 60 to 80 hours a week.

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And I made more money working

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part time in college just

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being dressed like a Chippen...

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I was a bodybuilder.

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So I dressed like a Chippendale on

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ladies night to serve drinks to the

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ladies and, uh, that started in the

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eighties and I was making eight to twelve

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hundred dollars in tips in one night.

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It was easy to do back then.

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Yeah, I waited tables also.

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It was easy to make 800 bucks a night.

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I remember when the

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Chippendales were popular.

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Yeah, they try to get me to do that too.

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And I'm like.

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They wanted me to, uh, join up

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a group in London, and they got

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busted for a patent infringement,

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and then the guy got arrested for

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having relations with a 15 year old.

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Well, because Chippendale, Chippendale

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is a very famous old furniture company.

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Right.

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Right.

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And they took the name and didn't

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get permission to use the name

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Chippendale, and it is patented.

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They got busted when they went to

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England, which is where Chippendale is.

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I also could have got into pro wrestling.

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Uh, everybody's seen the actor The Rock.

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I knew his father.

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I trained with his father.

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And he wanted to promote me in

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pro wrestling along with Paul

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Wallering and a few others.

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And I was in college at the

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time, so I couldn't do that.

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But they were switching over.

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to, from the Dusty Rhodes type look

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to the bodybuilders, and I knew Hulk

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Hogan, trained with him, and he had

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just, uh, bodyguarded Cyndi Lauper,

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and on stage he got noticed and he made

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Rocky III, and after that wrestling went

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crazy, but the main reason I couldn't

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do it, they wanted me to fly to Japan,

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I could do, you know, wrestling is

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all fake, alright, and the Mount Sulu

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wrestling school is a stunt school.

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Like I would go to and I'd have to go to

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that and that cost 10 grand, so I'm not

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going to make it, but kind of wonder,

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well, what would have happened if it did?

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So did all of that physicality, uh,

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play well into, you know, lead in well

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into your, your business, your, your.

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It didn't lead into the business, but

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it definitely helped having all that

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muscle and all that strength when

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you're moving furniture and carrying

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around big pieces of equipment.

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Oh, sure.

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I've seen him pick up a sofa and

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carry it out the house on his back.

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Yeah, won't do that now, but, not

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at 64, but, um, yeah, it just.

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I just saw an ad somewhere and it says,

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you know, make a thousand dollars a week

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and I'm sitting there How can you do that?

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I was used to making that in a day

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when nobody wanted to pay the kind

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of money I made and Long story short.

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I went to work for a company and it was

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a bait and switch $595 or $495 a room

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you go in And I'd watch what they did

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and I'm like, you know, I don't agree

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with this I didn't know what I was doing.

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So I said, yeah, I can you

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know do this better So now

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granted this was the 80s, right?

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So I'm walking in, I'm working in

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biker shorts with a portable, a

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tank top, just about making money.

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And he was massively huge back then.

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He's small now compared to what he

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was and you know, he had a 12 pack

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of you know, most of his clients were

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women and some of them were having

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their carpets cleaned once a month.

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Aunt Lisa said, I met Lisa, she was

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working at Roboconnie's And at Century

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Finance, and at Cardi's Jewelry.

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And I knew Jim Robiconti.

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He was a legend in Tampa for nightclubs.

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He's a big promoter in South America

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now, and I knew him real well.

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And I used to bounce for him.

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And in the 80s, they had,

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uh, best, 80s Bar contests.

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Bar contests for, like, bodybuilders.

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Best chest, best legs.

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Well, they had them for women, too.

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But I would go enter these,

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and I'd win 500 bucks a week in

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addition to making those tips.

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Wow.

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Because I'd go in and I'd win

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bar tabs, I'd give away, but

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I'd win about 500 bucks a week.

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Go in there and I'd go in all

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dressed, lousy and take off and

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get on stage and pose and win.

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So Jim calls me up and I'm

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like, no, I don't wanna do that.

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I, I'm too old to do that.

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He said, now bring your best

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friend, your but your buddies

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and we'll give you free drinks.

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And was cocktail waitress in there?

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I was one of the waitresses, and Jim told

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me to go recruit guys for this contest.

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And he walked in with, Him and

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five of his big massive buddies.

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So of course I go right up and

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try to recruit them So I didn't

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tell her I was in the contest.

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So i'm like, hey, you know Would you like

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to get together sometime have a coffee?

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Here's my card.

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Nope.

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Nope.

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Don't have time I'm busy.

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I work three jobs and I would come

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in there Big story, long story short,

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that, that contest that night, a big

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fight broke out, some guy jumped on

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stage and who shouldn't have been

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there and he was severely overweight

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and everybody's laughing and then he

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cold cocked the bouncer busted his nose

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open and I used to bounce with this guy

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and had to rush him to the hospital.

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So, get him all stitched up.

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So after that I kept coming back.

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Mm hmm.

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And she's...

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Yeah, I kept saying no.

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I'm tipping her 5 a drink for 1.

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75 beer.

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And she's, no, no, no, no.

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So...

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Legitimately, I'm busy.

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I was working two full time

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jobs and a part time job.

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I worked Monday through Friday

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at the finance company, 8

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to 5, with my two roommates.

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And then I worked at the bar full time.

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My only night off was Monday, because

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on Saturday and Sunday during the day...

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I worked for the jewelry store.

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So when I asked her out, my buddies

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there, now this sounds very egotistical,

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but let's understand, in the 80s, the

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way I was built, the women asked me out.

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They'd come to the club, they'd want to

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go out, just like the eye candy thing.

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He was also a male model.

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Yeah, I did some modeling too.

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This was during the John

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Travolta days, right?

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Pretty much.

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Yeah.

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Well, I really kicked it off

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after you had John Travolta.

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Then you had the country

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Western thing kicked off.

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And right after that flash dance came out.

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Yes.

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I remember that when flash dance

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came out, all the women, which the

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gym became the new meat market.

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And I was at a gym that was hardcore.

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I mean, I dumbbell started at 50 pounds.

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Oh, I'm playing with 180 pound dumbbells.

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So the women would come in there,

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you know, instead of going to

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the happy hour to meet guys.

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And we're like, what the heck?

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Leg warmers and everything,

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you know, and it stood out.

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So then after that, all these

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other clubs started coming.

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Uh, and they were meat markets.

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Ballys are, are, are all of that stuff.

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Mm hmm.

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So, pretty much.

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Well, so what happened with that,

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he kept coming in and talking to me.

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And, you know, it was like six weeks

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of him coming in every night and just

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standing there, waiting for me to walk

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by so he could talk to me a little bit.

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And would ask me out all the

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time, and I kept saying no.

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And I thought, I only have one night

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off, that's when I do my laundry.

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And my buddies are laughing

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and rolling on the floor.

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She said no.

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And I'm like, I know.

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She said no.

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I'm like, what's that?

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At the finance company, my two roommates

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worked at the finance company with me.

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I was the only one with a car,

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so I drove both of them to work

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and drove them home every day.

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Um, our boss was really cool

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because most of the people who were

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working there did collection work.

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I got bumped up where I was

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doing the actual posting onto

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the account, so I didn't have to

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make those phone calls anymore.

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Nice.

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But the one roommate, James, did off

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site collection, so he would use my

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card during the day to run and pick

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up payments from people and bring it

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back so they could post on the account.

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Well, our boss would let us take

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breaks with the radio contest.

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Whenever they'd have dial in and win,

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he'd go, Okay, everybody take five

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minutes, dial in, see what you can win.

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So we won a lot of stuff

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because we're constant.

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We had multiple lines, so we

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could have five lines going at

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the same time to the same number.

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So on this particular day in July, I won

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two tickets to a movie premiere party.

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It's a Monday.

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I'm off that night.

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Asked both my roommates, which

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one of you wants to go with me?

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Oh, no, it's too late.

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We'll get home too late, and I

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gotta go to work in the morning.

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I'm like, really?

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I take you home, take a nap, get

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dressed, and go back out to work

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and get home at four o'clock in the

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morning, then sleep for two hours

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and wake you up to come to work.

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You can't go out one night.

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They're like, no, no, no.

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So, my male roommate, James,

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why don't you call that guy at

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the club that keeps talking to

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y'all and giving the guy a break?

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Okay, thank you.

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So, I am, um, getting

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ready to go out the door.

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I had another thing, I'm already

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dressed and the answering machine rings.

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And back to, so I stopped to

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listen to the answering machine.

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And it's like, hey, it's

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Lisa from Robiconte's.

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And she told me that story.

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Can you be here in 30 minutes?

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And I'm like, boom, called her up.

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Where do you live?

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She lived next to King High School.

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I lived on the other side of Tampa.

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I lived in apartments close to,

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um, Town and Country, Hillsborough

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and Memorial and it's five o'clock.

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Alright?

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So I'm like, oh my God.

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So yeah, I'll be there.

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So man, I drove like a ba.

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I drove so fast, I hit a pothole,

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busted my passenger door.

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It started flopping open.

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So I had to bungee cord.

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You driving in the van, I

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had a bungee cord that shut.

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So I finally get to her apartment and

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I start walking out the car and then

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her roommate goes, My male roommate,

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James, who was kind of built, nothing

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like him, looks out the window and

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he says, This guy, is he kind of big?

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And I'm like, yeah.

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He goes, Is that him?

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And I'm like, yeah.

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We lived on the second floor.

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And he goes, Okay, see ya!

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And ducks in his bedroom.

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So, so she comes out, and Lisa,

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Lisa had million dollar legs.

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That's what attracted me to her.

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Yes, and those five inch heels and a

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miniskirt and I'm like, oh my god, you

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know many so anyway I'm like you're

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gonna have to get in on the driver's

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door I just broke that door and she's

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like, yeah, right So she goes in I make

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sure I turn and I look the other way I

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may I look at it and make sure he was

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polite He would look at the other way

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because I literally had to crawl over

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the driver's seat in a micro miniskirt

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Cross your legs before you sit down Yeah.

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So, we get to Harbor Island, and it was

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a, a club, what was the name of that club?

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Blueberry Hill.

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Blueberry Hill.

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And she won a movie premiere, it

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was a movie with Cindy Lauper,

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Jeff Goldblum, about psychics.

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We finally saw that movie

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about two years ago.

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Two years ago, this was thirty five years

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ago that we were supposed to see it.

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So we're talking and drinking,

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and she, oh my god, can she drink?

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I spent 280 on the bar tab and

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she drank in the 80s and the 80s.

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So, we end up back at Robiconte's

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at about 2 in the morning and

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everybody's cheering and clapping.

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They're going, finally!

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Yes!

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So, anyway, after that,

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that was our first date.

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Prior to that, working in the club,

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our boss, Jim, would have meetings with

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The staff, the staff is mainly female.

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He liked female bartenders,

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female waitstaff, we had one

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male bartender, and the bouncers

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were the only other male crew.

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So he would always tell us, ladies,

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don't go out with the guys who come in

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here, they're all crap, they're all, you

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know, assholes, and that kind of thing.

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And then one day he looked at me and

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he says, except Kenny, he's a nice guy.

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I said, what are you talking about?

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I'm not seeing Kenny.

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Why is everybody talking

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to me about this Kenny guy?

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So when we finally walked in, everyone

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was like, yay, you finally got together.

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That was our first date we've

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been together ever since.

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Wow.

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We knew we were getting

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married on the first date.

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Yeah.

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The things we talked about, having that

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big house, a lot of land, Bunch of dogs.

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Bunch of dogs, raising our own

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crops, and that's where we are.

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That's where we are.

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We bought this in 99.

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And so, naturally, um, I got

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to tell her I had a business.

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I had a carpet cleaning

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business, upholstery cleaning.

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And, uh, so.

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She came on and she would help me with

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the business and she would work, uh,

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the bar and I told her you don't have,

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you know, it's up to you, but you

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don't need to work three jobs anymore.

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We'll move in together,

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put our bills together.

Speaker: 00:13:35

Uh, I'll have the business lease the car.

Speaker: 00:13:38

And we can use it and

Speaker: 00:13:39

write off the payments.

Speaker: 00:13:40

All right, and you put all your tips in

Speaker: 00:13:42

a jar Which turned out to put that all

Speaker: 00:13:46

that coins We had one of those big five

Speaker: 00:13:49

gallon zephyr health bottles and I would

Speaker: 00:13:50

bring home the change for my tips Which

Speaker: 00:13:52

is quarters always we filled up that jar.

Speaker: 00:13:56

It was over six thousand dollars helped

Speaker: 00:13:58

us put a down payment on our first house

Speaker: 00:14:01

Yes Because we needed to come up with

Speaker: 00:14:03

like uh, ten thousand or something.

Speaker: 00:14:06

We bought the first house in 89 So, I

Speaker: 00:14:09

met her in 88, and then, not, uh, yeah,

Speaker: 00:14:12

towards, yeah, 89, we got in there.

Speaker: 00:14:14

89, we bought the house,

Speaker: 00:14:15

we got married in 90.

Speaker: 00:14:16

Then we bought this place in 99, and

Speaker: 00:14:18

so she would help me with the business.

Speaker: 00:14:19

I'd drag her out in the field.

Speaker: 00:14:21

Well, I would, I would come home in the

Speaker: 00:14:22

evening and help him with paperwork,

Speaker: 00:14:24

which he's horrible at paperwork.

Speaker: 00:14:27

So we bought a computer and I started

Speaker: 00:14:28

putting things into, you know,

Speaker: 00:14:30

the computer bookkeeping program

Speaker: 00:14:32

for him and that kind of stuff and

Speaker: 00:14:34

making sure that all the bills got

Speaker: 00:14:35

paid so he didn't have to do that.

Speaker: 00:14:37

And I also made him

Speaker: 00:14:38

start wearing a uniform.

Speaker: 00:14:40

Yeah, we found out about

Speaker: 00:14:41

certifications back then.

Speaker: 00:14:42

It was called the IICUC.

Speaker: 00:14:46

ICRC now, and I became a certified

Speaker: 00:14:48

triple master in the industry.

Speaker: 00:14:51

So, uh, in terms of what that means,

Speaker: 00:14:53

they teach at Purdue university now

Speaker: 00:14:55

as a 10 year course, and there's

Speaker: 00:14:57

less than 500, 550 people worldwide

Speaker: 00:15:01

who have his level of certification.

Speaker: 00:15:03

So that question,

Speaker: 00:15:07

what sets you apart in the industry?

Speaker: 00:15:09

He's a ICRC certified triple master.

Speaker: 00:15:14

Um, you ever look at his list of

Speaker: 00:15:16

actual certifications, it fills up

Speaker: 00:15:18

a full page and we figured it was

Speaker: 00:15:21

over 10, on the sleeve, over 10,

Speaker: 00:15:24

000 hours of classroom training.

Speaker: 00:15:25

Plus Q Gon, plus testing, plus for certain

Speaker: 00:15:29

ones you have to get the certification and

Speaker: 00:15:31

then be a journeyman for two to four years

Speaker: 00:15:34

and show actual proficiency in the field.

Speaker: 00:15:37

And he was also what they

Speaker: 00:15:39

call a performance assessor,

Speaker: 00:15:41

where they would take.

Speaker: 00:15:42

Say, you were a carpet cleaner, you would

Speaker: 00:15:44

come to the assessment and we would help

Speaker: 00:15:48

on the side, run you through certain

Speaker: 00:15:50

tasks, like, how do you measure chemicals

Speaker: 00:15:53

properly and people don't know how to

Speaker: 00:15:55

measure pH and how do you measure pH?

Speaker: 00:15:58

How do you pull back the carpet?

Speaker: 00:16:01

Clean and replace the pad when there's

Speaker: 00:16:03

pet urine and then reinstall the carpet,

Speaker: 00:16:05

different things like that, and you'd

Speaker: 00:16:07

get a grade, pass or fail, and it's a

Speaker: 00:16:10

way for companies to say, okay, so John

Speaker: 00:16:13

does great here, but he needs help here,

Speaker: 00:16:16

so this is what we need to work on him

Speaker: 00:16:18

for, and he was one of the assessors.

Speaker: 00:16:20

I got dragged in behind

Speaker: 00:16:22

him to kind of help.

Speaker: 00:16:24

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:16:24

Okay.

Speaker: 00:16:24

So it's sort of an

Speaker: 00:16:25

external quality control.

Speaker: 00:16:27

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:16:28

It's done by third party people

Speaker: 00:16:31

who've been trained and assess

Speaker: 00:16:34

themselves to be experts.

Speaker: 00:16:35

Now, moving ahead.

Speaker: 00:16:37

Naturally, when you had a water

Speaker: 00:16:40

loss, we didn't have water

Speaker: 00:16:42

damage restoration back then.

Speaker: 00:16:44

We had to invent it.

Speaker: 00:16:46

So what happened, who would you call?

Speaker: 00:16:47

You'd call a guy that sucked water out.

Speaker: 00:16:50

And then you'd say, well,

Speaker: 00:16:50

can you dry this or that?

Speaker: 00:16:52

So we'd put fans down.

Speaker: 00:16:54

Lo and behold, we think

Speaker: 00:16:55

we're drying, but we're not.

Speaker: 00:16:57

The walls started molding and all

Speaker: 00:16:58

of this, so mold became a big issue.

Speaker: 00:17:01

I don't know if you remember the

Speaker: 00:17:02

Melinda Ballard case in Texas, where

Speaker: 00:17:06

their family got sick from mold.

Speaker: 00:17:07

They had to sue Farmer's Insurance.

Speaker: 00:17:10

And, uh, they wanted, they had to,

Speaker: 00:17:12

you know, tear the house down, so

Speaker: 00:17:14

that's when Aaron Brockovich came in.

Speaker: 00:17:16

Took over and basically, you know,

Speaker: 00:17:21

after she made that movie, she became

Speaker: 00:17:23

the lawyer and she took that ball case.

Speaker: 00:17:25

So now they came up with

Speaker: 00:17:26

a certification for mold.

Speaker: 00:17:28

We came up with a certification for

Speaker: 00:17:29

water damage, how to do it and dry

Speaker: 00:17:31

it properly so you wouldn't get mold.

Speaker: 00:17:33

We've served on committees that

Speaker: 00:17:35

help establish these standards.

Speaker: 00:17:37

He just recently did a committee

Speaker: 00:17:39

to rewrite which one was it?

Speaker: 00:17:41

Deodorization.

Speaker: 00:17:49

And they dragged me in for

Speaker: 00:17:50

some reason, even though I

Speaker: 00:17:51

don't have the certification.

Speaker: 00:17:53

Yeah, so what happened is, so

Speaker: 00:17:55

naturally, one thing led to another.

Speaker: 00:17:57

So carpet led to upholstery, which

Speaker: 00:17:59

led to tile and grout, which led to

Speaker: 00:18:00

this, which led to floor, which led

Speaker: 00:18:02

to water damage, rug, cleaning, all

Speaker: 00:18:05

different certifications, drying a

Speaker: 00:18:07

building out, crime scene cleanup.

Speaker: 00:18:10

Uh, biohazard remediation.

Speaker: 00:18:12

COVID cleanups.

Speaker: 00:18:14

All of that.

Speaker: 00:18:15

So that's where we grew to.

Speaker: 00:18:18

Okay, so you didn't start with

Speaker: 00:18:19

the crime scene part of it.

Speaker: 00:18:21

That was much later.

Speaker: 00:18:21

It was simple carpet cleaning and

Speaker: 00:18:23

they each built on each other.

Speaker: 00:18:25

Okay.

Speaker: 00:18:25

And I once had someone ask me

Speaker: 00:18:27

how they kind of correlate with

Speaker: 00:18:30

carpet and upholstery cleaning

Speaker: 00:18:31

and disaster restoration.

Speaker: 00:18:33

Well, if you clean carpet, you

Speaker: 00:18:34

usually have some kind of equipment.

Speaker: 00:18:36

We have the big truck that sucks.

Speaker: 00:18:39

Some people use portables.

Speaker: 00:18:40

We have a bigger truck.

Speaker: 00:18:40

If you have water damage,

Speaker: 00:18:42

you suck up the water first.

Speaker: 00:18:44

So you need the big truck that sucks.

Speaker: 00:18:46

And the last thing you do on a

Speaker: 00:18:47

water damage restoration job is

Speaker: 00:18:49

you clean the floors as you go out.

Speaker: 00:18:52

Fire.

Speaker: 00:18:53

If you have a fire, what do

Speaker: 00:18:54

they use to put out the fire?

Speaker: 00:18:55

Water.

Speaker: 00:18:56

So again, you need the

Speaker: 00:18:57

big truck that sucks.

Speaker: 00:18:59

Plus we use the big truck

Speaker: 00:19:00

to clean everything.

Speaker: 00:19:02

And again, we clean the

Speaker: 00:19:03

floors on the way out.

Speaker: 00:19:07

So again, you're dealing with the

Speaker: 00:19:08

water situation, and you use the

Speaker: 00:19:11

drying equipment, and you still use

Speaker: 00:19:13

the big truck that sucks, because

Speaker: 00:19:15

we tear out the drywall, and then we

Speaker: 00:19:17

wash down the sides and the floor,

Speaker: 00:19:19

and again, we clean the floor.

Speaker: 00:19:20

It's the last thing we do.

Speaker: 00:19:21

That separates us from our

Speaker: 00:19:23

competition in this way.

Speaker: 00:19:25

Think of a national franchise,

Speaker: 00:19:27

any of them, that do what we do.

Speaker: 00:19:31

They do not want to dry anything.

Speaker: 00:19:33

They want to rip it all out.

Speaker: 00:19:34

In our industry, in order to

Speaker: 00:19:36

learn drying, they had to build

Speaker: 00:19:37

homes and flood them and dry them.

Speaker: 00:19:39

And we successfully dried carpet

Speaker: 00:19:41

padding and drywall from clean water

Speaker: 00:19:43

losses without ripping anything out.

Speaker: 00:19:46

Over 400 times.

Speaker: 00:19:47

In this house that they use.

Speaker: 00:19:49

Yeah, and drying of drywall

Speaker: 00:19:51

makes it stronger and harder.

Speaker: 00:19:52

You don't have to cut it out.

Speaker: 00:19:54

But if it takes you three, let's

Speaker: 00:19:56

say, uh, 2, 000 square foot house

Speaker: 00:20:00

flooded completely, it might

Speaker: 00:20:03

take us $5,000 to dry that out.

Speaker: 00:20:07

But my competitor wants to come in and

Speaker: 00:20:08

take out 2 to 4 feet of drywall, put

Speaker: 00:20:11

everything in storage, rip out all the

Speaker: 00:20:12

carpet, pad, floor, rip out all the

Speaker: 00:20:14

cabinets, hit you for a hundred grand..

Speaker: 00:20:17

I'm dry in 3 to 5 days.

Speaker: 00:20:20

Your house is tied up

Speaker: 00:20:21

for six to eight months.

Speaker: 00:20:23

And they have to...

Speaker: 00:20:24

any cleaning from a fire, they sub

Speaker: 00:20:26

out They don't know how to do it.

Speaker: 00:20:28

Yeah, we do it ourselves.

Speaker: 00:20:29

So why?

Speaker: 00:20:31

Now from a business model It's easy

Speaker: 00:20:33

to invest a half a million dollars in

Speaker: 00:20:35

equipment to make less They would rather

Speaker: 00:20:39

hire three guys with a razor knife go in

Speaker: 00:20:43

And i'm sorry, i'd rather do it ethically

Speaker: 00:20:45

in the right way Yeah, plus I can do

Speaker: 00:20:48

ten jobs for five thousand dollars each

Speaker: 00:20:50

while they're I've been stuck on this one

Speaker: 00:20:53

for eight months and I'm only in a month

Speaker: 00:20:55

and I still got the other seven months

Speaker: 00:20:57

to do those and three to five thousand.

Speaker: 00:20:59

Now, think about it.

Speaker: 00:21:00

Alright, your house, a pipe breaks.

Speaker: 00:21:03

Alright.

Speaker: 00:21:03

And um, you got a company that can

Speaker: 00:21:06

dry everything out and guarantee it.

Speaker: 00:21:10

No odor, no mold, no nothing.

Speaker: 00:21:12

Alright, your, your insurance.

Speaker: 00:21:14

So, we had to argue with

Speaker: 00:21:15

the insurance a lot.

Speaker: 00:21:16

Oh, carpet and pad molds.

Speaker: 00:21:17

No, it doesn't.

Speaker: 00:21:18

It's plastic.

Speaker: 00:21:19

Alright.

Speaker: 00:21:19

Tupperware, you don't throw

Speaker: 00:21:20

Tupperware away when the food molds.

Speaker: 00:21:23

Hey, there's so much, there's so

Speaker: 00:21:25

much crap wrong about mold, and I

Speaker: 00:21:27

could talk three hours just on mold.

Speaker: 00:21:30

All right.

Speaker: 00:21:31

And, uh, so it naturally, you know, came

Speaker: 00:21:34

to, for, you know, to fruition that way.

Speaker: 00:21:37

Okay.

Speaker: 00:21:38

Now you've got to tell me what

Speaker: 00:21:38

do you guys love most about

Speaker: 00:21:40

working together as family?

Speaker: 00:21:43

We are together.

Speaker: 00:21:44

We get along great.

Speaker: 00:21:46

We love working together.

Speaker: 00:21:47

We don't have to have time apart.

Speaker: 00:21:49

We spend all our time together

Speaker: 00:21:52

and we, I, I, I've trained her.

Speaker: 00:21:56

And honestly, when it comes to cleaning,

Speaker: 00:21:59

especially crime scene, women are better.

Speaker: 00:22:02

Men are lousy.

Speaker: 00:22:04

Men make lousy cleaners.

Speaker: 00:22:06

They are not, when I got to do

Speaker: 00:22:08

detail cleaning, be it fire or

Speaker: 00:22:11

be it mold or trauma, women.

Speaker: 00:22:14

But for the level that we clean at, it's

Speaker: 00:22:16

way beyond your housekeeper type cleaning.

Speaker: 00:22:20

Right.

Speaker: 00:22:21

Because we are looking for blood borne

Speaker: 00:22:24

pathogens and, you know, viruses and

Speaker: 00:22:27

bacteria where they're just looking

Speaker: 00:22:29

for skin polished surface cleaners.

Speaker: 00:22:31

Sometimes when we go through and clean

Speaker: 00:22:33

to disinfect, it doesn't look pretty.

Speaker: 00:22:36

That comes later.

Speaker: 00:22:37

You got water stains on your mirror.

Speaker: 00:22:40

Okay, this is about getting it to pass

Speaker: 00:22:42

a test saying you are healthy clean.

Speaker: 00:22:46

We clean carpets and

Speaker: 00:22:47

the floors the same way.

Speaker: 00:22:49

Like if you mop your floor,

Speaker: 00:22:50

you're not cleaning anything.

Speaker: 00:22:52

What happens as soon as you

Speaker: 00:22:54

squeeze the mop in the wringer

Speaker: 00:22:56

and dip it back in the water?

Speaker: 00:22:58

Well, one of the things we really

Speaker: 00:22:59

enjoy is every day is different for us.

Speaker: 00:23:02

We don't have like this set schedule.

Speaker: 00:23:05

It's not just a job, it's an adventure.

Speaker: 00:23:07

We don't know what's

Speaker: 00:23:07

going to happen tomorrow.

Speaker: 00:23:09

We work with a lot of property managers.

Speaker: 00:23:12

We had one, we're still waiting for

Speaker: 00:23:13

them to pull the trigger on, that

Speaker: 00:23:15

their tenant was getting evicted.

Speaker: 00:23:18

Um, before they could

Speaker: 00:23:19

get him out, he died.

Speaker: 00:23:21

Um, he was there for ten

Speaker: 00:23:23

days before they found him.

Speaker: 00:23:25

And his poor little dog got hungry.

Speaker: 00:23:27

It wasn't a little dog.

Speaker: 00:23:28

He was about...

Speaker: 00:23:29

His poor dog got hungry.

Speaker: 00:23:31

So, the situation...

Speaker: 00:23:33

He's dead.

Speaker: 00:23:34

So now they have to find his family.

Speaker: 00:23:37

And they can't do anything with

Speaker: 00:23:39

the unit even though they were

Speaker: 00:23:40

in the process of eviction.

Speaker: 00:23:41

He hadn't been legally evicted yet.

Speaker: 00:23:44

They can't do anything with the unit

Speaker: 00:23:46

until the family is notified, and

Speaker: 00:23:50

it has gone through probate, and the

Speaker: 00:23:51

family has the ability to come and

Speaker: 00:23:53

take whatever possessions they want.

Speaker: 00:23:55

It was flea infested?

Speaker: 00:23:56

Well, and in the meantime, we go over

Speaker: 00:23:59

there to do just some basic cleanup, and

Speaker: 00:24:02

they had the power turned off because he

Speaker: 00:24:03

didn't pay his bill because he's dead.

Speaker: 00:24:06

And now they're trying to get the

Speaker: 00:24:07

power turned back on, but because

Speaker: 00:24:08

of the probate situation, the power

Speaker: 00:24:10

company is going no way to do anything.

Speaker: 00:24:13

So they're, they're stuck and they've got

Speaker: 00:24:15

this unit that they can do nothing with.

Speaker: 00:24:17

There's no rent coming in and

Speaker: 00:24:19

no hope of any rent coming in

Speaker: 00:24:21

until probate goes through.

Speaker: 00:24:25

We ran equipment to knock down most

Speaker: 00:24:26

of the odor so they can at least get

Speaker: 00:24:28

in and, and to get the contents out.

Speaker: 00:24:30

Yeah, well, this is the same property

Speaker: 00:24:32

manager who during Ian had one of his

Speaker: 00:24:35

houses that was rented to a family

Speaker: 00:24:37

and three huge oak trees fell on it.

Speaker: 00:24:40

Boom.

Speaker: 00:24:40

Boom.

Speaker: 00:24:41

Boom.

Speaker: 00:24:41

Went through the roof.

Speaker: 00:24:42

Came through the roof.

Speaker: 00:24:43

Came through the ceiling into the

Speaker: 00:24:45

living room while the family was

Speaker: 00:24:47

having a birthday party in the room.

Speaker: 00:24:49

Luckily, they were in the

Speaker: 00:24:50

dining room and nobody got hurt.

Speaker: 00:24:52

Broke the trusses and everything.

Speaker: 00:24:54

And.

Speaker: 00:24:55

We went in and just cleaned

Speaker: 00:24:56

up all the mess up and dry it.

Speaker: 00:24:58

Yeah So you could actually walk through

Speaker: 00:25:00

the building without flipping and falling

Speaker: 00:25:02

And then the tree crew came in and

Speaker: 00:25:03

pulled the tree out and made a huge mess

Speaker: 00:25:05

again, so we had to go and clean it.

Speaker: 00:25:06

Sounds like you guys could have a second

Speaker: 00:25:09

division selling insurance because with

Speaker: 00:25:11

all your stories We've been contacted

Speaker: 00:25:14

for reality shows, um twice Discovery

Speaker: 00:25:18

channel and the problem was they want

Speaker: 00:25:20

drama They want you to make up stuff.

Speaker: 00:25:23

Yeah What the hell's

Speaker: 00:25:26

wrong with you or this?

Speaker: 00:25:27

The first time, they said take some video.

Speaker: 00:25:30

So I'm out in the field and we

Speaker: 00:25:32

had, we were working with a general

Speaker: 00:25:33

contractor and his crew on a mold job.

Speaker: 00:25:35

And we're in there in the old suits and

Speaker: 00:25:37

everything and ripping out drywall and

Speaker: 00:25:39

I'm taking video and I send it to them and

Speaker: 00:25:41

they go, Well, where, where's the drama?

Speaker: 00:25:44

You know, we need you guys like

Speaker: 00:25:45

fighting and bickering at the same time.

Speaker: 00:25:46

It doesn't work like that with us.

Speaker: 00:25:48

We don't we don't have that kind of stuff.

Speaker: 00:25:52

And then the 2nd, 1 dirty,

Speaker: 00:25:53

rotten, dirty, rotten cleaners.

Speaker: 00:25:55

We're supposed to and they interviewed

Speaker: 00:25:58

us and they were just getting ready to

Speaker: 00:26:00

start filming when something happened

Speaker: 00:26:02

in the background and we got cut.

Speaker: 00:26:04

Well, right after that happened, we had

Speaker: 00:26:06

a, um, a major hoarder house with spiders.

Speaker: 00:26:11

We had a house that was infested

Speaker: 00:26:13

with spiders and German roaches.

Speaker: 00:26:15

Plus, he was a 40 year

Speaker: 00:26:17

smoker, so there was nicotine.

Speaker: 00:26:19

Plus, he had a couple of cats

Speaker: 00:26:20

that were using his dirty clothes

Speaker: 00:26:22

laying on the floor as their potty.

Speaker: 00:26:24

So that would have been a

Speaker: 00:26:24

huge one for their show.

Speaker: 00:26:26

Then we had another crime scene.

Speaker: 00:26:28

We had the one where the guy had the

Speaker: 00:26:29

aneurysm and then bled out in his

Speaker: 00:26:31

chair in the 8, 000 square foot house.

Speaker: 00:26:33

We had all these interesting stuff.

Speaker: 00:26:36

So I emailed him.

Speaker: 00:26:36

I said you're missing out on all of

Speaker: 00:26:38

it Because people see episodes of

Speaker: 00:26:40

their show and they're like there's

Speaker: 00:26:41

nothing there, but they're bickering

Speaker: 00:26:43

at each other They're not really

Speaker: 00:26:44

doing anything interesting like you.

Speaker: 00:26:46

When they interviewed the first interview.

Speaker: 00:26:48

I said, what do you want to talk about?

Speaker: 00:26:49

Blood, mold or crap?

Speaker: 00:26:52

Oh yeah, he's our guy.

Speaker: 00:26:54

Okay, ask a question.

Speaker: 00:26:59

What a shame.

Speaker: 00:27:04

I was I was playing basketball on a

Speaker: 00:27:07

carpeted court for wheelchair patients.

Speaker: 00:27:09

My.

Speaker: 00:27:10

My thighs look like Earl

Speaker: 00:27:11

Campbell, if you've ever watched

Speaker: 00:27:13

Earl Campbell running back.

Speaker: 00:27:14

Huge.

Speaker: 00:27:15

Alright, I was about 260,

Speaker: 00:27:17

you know, really big.

Speaker: 00:27:18

So I ran down the court to make a

Speaker: 00:27:20

fast break and the carpet gave loose

Speaker: 00:27:22

and I blew both patella tendons.

Speaker: 00:27:23

At the same time.

Speaker: 00:27:25

That's the one that's...

Speaker: 00:27:26

from your kneecap going down.

Speaker: 00:27:28

Oh, yeah.

Speaker: 00:27:29

So they rushed me to Brandon Hospital.

Speaker: 00:27:31

They didn't know what to do.

Speaker: 00:27:32

His kneecap flew up into his thigh.

Speaker: 00:27:35

So they had to.

Speaker: 00:27:36

I finally got to Florida Orthopedic.

Speaker: 00:27:38

Met, uh, Thomas Bernassi.

Speaker: 00:27:39

Well, first we went to Brandon Regional

Speaker: 00:27:41

and they kept you on a stretcher in the

Speaker: 00:27:44

ER with monitors on you for 24 hours

Speaker: 00:27:46

and the doctor never came to see him.

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Did nothing.

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He did nothing.

Speaker: 00:27:50

We didn't have health insurance.

Speaker: 00:27:52

We'd just gotten married a year before.

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Not even a year before, so

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brought him home and then someone

Speaker: 00:27:59

said, go to temple general.

Speaker: 00:28:01

So we had a friend who

Speaker: 00:28:02

had a van in a wheelchair.

Speaker: 00:28:03

So we loaded him up in the back of

Speaker: 00:28:04

the van in the wheelchair and hauled

Speaker: 00:28:06

him off the temple general and Dr.

Speaker: 00:28:08

Thomas Burnett.

Speaker: 00:28:09

They happened to be on duty that night

Speaker: 00:28:12

and we told him we don't have insurance.

Speaker: 00:28:14

It's not don't worry about it.

Speaker: 00:28:18

Dr.

Speaker: 00:28:18

Burnett picked him up and didn't

Speaker: 00:28:21

know if he'd ever walk again.

Speaker: 00:28:22

So this is.

Speaker: 00:28:24

Than a year after we got

Speaker: 00:28:25

married and then shortly after

Speaker: 00:28:27

that, found out I'm pregnant.

Speaker: 00:28:31

He was the main, how soon after that?

Speaker: 00:28:33

Uh, it was just a couple months later

Speaker: 00:28:35

that we found out I was pregnant.

Speaker: 00:28:36

And, and you still didn't know

Speaker: 00:28:37

if he was ever gonna walk?

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Mm-hmm.

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I had no idea.

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Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:28:41

He was still laying on

Speaker: 00:28:42

the sofa, unable to walk.

Speaker: 00:28:44

When I came in and told him that I

Speaker: 00:28:45

was pregnant, I sat in a ccpm machine

Speaker: 00:28:47

that gets a thing that would work.

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Work your legs for two months.

Speaker: 00:28:49

Mm-hmm.

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, go, go to the bathroom.

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And I have buddies after a while.

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I said, pick me up, take me to the

Speaker: 00:28:55

gym so I can at least work upper body.

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It got so bad, I finally said, I got to

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go to work, wires are not, they had to

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put a screw through my kneecap and a screw

Speaker: 00:29:05

through my bone and, and the lower bone

Speaker: 00:29:08

and wrap it with wire to hold it together.

Speaker: 00:29:10

Well, timing, both my trucks blew

Speaker: 00:29:13

up and, um, didn't have the money to

Speaker: 00:29:16

rebuild my engine, so I borrowed a used,

Speaker: 00:29:18

bought a used truck, it was stick shift,

Speaker: 00:29:20

Ford, so as I'm driving down the road,

Speaker: 00:29:22

I'm pushing the clutch, wire breaks.

Speaker: 00:29:24

I hired another kid.

Speaker: 00:29:25

He had fetal alcohol syndrome,

Speaker: 00:29:27

but he could, he could work, to

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do what I needed and pay him.

Speaker: 00:29:32

Well, we also had my brother in law, one

Speaker: 00:29:34

of his friends, uh, came and took our

Speaker: 00:29:37

truck and did some of the cleaning jobs

Speaker: 00:29:39

for us, so we would have some income.

Speaker: 00:29:42

Because I'm working part time, and my

Speaker: 00:29:44

story on that, I was working, I left

Speaker: 00:29:47

the nightclub, I was working in a

Speaker: 00:29:48

hotel, in the bar, just serving drinks

Speaker: 00:29:50

a couple nights a week for extra money.

Speaker: 00:29:53

I went to my boss and told

Speaker: 00:29:54

him what happened and he

Speaker: 00:29:55

goes, what can we do to help?

Speaker: 00:29:56

I said, I need more

Speaker: 00:29:56

money and I need it now.

Speaker: 00:29:58

Yeah.

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So he said, okay, I've got like paperwork

Speaker: 00:30:02

and stuff in the office that you can

Speaker: 00:30:04

do for me and we'll pay you for it.

Speaker: 00:30:06

So I went back and started doing

Speaker: 00:30:08

all of his reports and all of

Speaker: 00:30:09

the paperwork for the food and

Speaker: 00:30:10

beverage operation in this hotel.

Speaker: 00:30:13

Well, the corporate office saw

Speaker: 00:30:15

that the reports were coming

Speaker: 00:30:16

on in time and accurate.

Speaker: 00:30:19

And they said, well, what's going on?

Speaker: 00:30:20

And he told them, well, you know,

Speaker: 00:30:22

Lisa's working in there part time.

Speaker: 00:30:23

doing all of this for me.

Speaker: 00:30:25

Well, they created a full time position

Speaker: 00:30:27

for me for 30, 30 grand a year,

Speaker: 00:30:31

which in 1990, pretty decent money,

Speaker: 00:30:33

plus full health insurance benefit.

Speaker: 00:30:36

And I found out later that I

Speaker: 00:30:38

was pregnant, so it was covered,

Speaker: 00:30:41

but that created a position.

Speaker: 00:30:43

From there, I went to become,

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in less than eight months,

Speaker: 00:30:47

assistant to the general manager.

Speaker: 00:30:49

At nine months pregnant, they promoted me.

Speaker: 00:30:52

To assistance to the general manager

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and human resources director.

Speaker: 00:30:55

And then after she left, when the

Speaker: 00:30:59

hotel got taken over, which they do

Speaker: 00:31:01

frequently every four years, I moved

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to a different hotel and was assistant

Speaker: 00:31:05

to the regional vice president.

Speaker: 00:31:07

So that incident is part

Speaker: 00:31:10

of the career for me.

Speaker: 00:31:12

They got a computer and she

Speaker: 00:31:13

figured out how to work it and

Speaker: 00:31:14

programmed it and created computer

Speaker: 00:31:16

software to run their programs.

Speaker: 00:31:20

So really, it was simple stuff,

Speaker: 00:31:23

but I'll say she got an IQ of 169.

Speaker: 00:31:26

And I'm a natural one.

Speaker: 00:31:28

She got me beat.

Speaker: 00:31:29

I'm 1

Speaker: 00:31:33

41.

Speaker: 00:31:34

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: 00:31:34

Don't ever play scrabble

Speaker: 00:31:35

words with friends.

Speaker: 00:31:36

That's so you guys,

Speaker: 00:31:39

you guys overcame that.

Speaker: 00:31:40

Apparently you heal because I healed.

Speaker: 00:31:42

I had to teach myself to walk and

Speaker: 00:31:44

uh, and I had and every time I push

Speaker: 00:31:47

that clutch to stab me in the 10.

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Well, the minute I told him I'm pregnant

Speaker: 00:31:50

is that that was the spark that got

Speaker: 00:31:53

him up and I've got to do something.

Speaker: 00:31:57

I've got a child to support now.

Speaker: 00:31:58

I've got to, I've got to go.

Speaker: 00:32:01

He'd run upstairs carrying a floor

Speaker: 00:32:03

shampoo weren't affordable because

Speaker: 00:32:05

I didn't have a truck mount yet.

Speaker: 00:32:07

And when it came to a truck mount, I

Speaker: 00:32:08

found one in a junkyard and built it

Speaker: 00:32:11

when I got well and put it in a truck.

Speaker: 00:32:13

So my first couple I built

Speaker: 00:32:14

because back then good truck

Speaker: 00:32:16

mounts were running 40 grand.

Speaker: 00:32:19

All right.

Speaker: 00:32:20

Now there are hundreds.

Speaker: 00:32:23

So, I built the system.

Speaker: 00:32:25

If you ever see our big red truck,

Speaker: 00:32:27

we drive around, we work on it.

Speaker: 00:32:31

It's about 250 grand to

Speaker: 00:32:32

outfit that truck today.

Speaker: 00:32:35

We got lucky with it.

Speaker: 00:32:36

We, we bought the truck used the

Speaker: 00:32:39

truck mount unit that's in it.

Speaker: 00:32:40

It's a funny story.

Speaker: 00:32:42

We got lots of stories..

Speaker: 00:32:43

We get, we go to our annual

Speaker: 00:32:44

conference every year usually

Speaker: 00:32:47

either in Vegas or another city.

Speaker: 00:32:49

It was just in Fort Lauderdale.

Speaker: 00:32:50

Yeah.

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And they would have these raffle

Speaker: 00:32:53

prizes where you buy a dollar

Speaker: 00:32:54

ticket and you stick it in the

Speaker: 00:32:55

cup for the prize you want to win.

Speaker: 00:32:57

And I always win some stuff.

Speaker: 00:32:59

I still do.

Speaker: 00:33:00

They don't do raffle tickets anymore.

Speaker: 00:33:02

They do it different, but

Speaker: 00:33:03

I always win something.

Speaker: 00:33:05

So, we go in and they're drawing for the

Speaker: 00:33:07

prizes and I win a machine called a CRB.

Speaker: 00:33:10

It's a counter rotating brush machine.

Speaker: 00:33:12

You use it to clean floors

Speaker: 00:33:13

and it helps get up.

Speaker: 00:33:14

It pulls the nap up.

Speaker: 00:33:16

It pulls the nap up on the carpet.

Speaker: 00:33:18

Well, Ken has been talking

Speaker: 00:33:20

to a guy named Troy.

Speaker: 00:33:22

Troy had a truck mount cleaning

Speaker: 00:33:24

unit that was down here in Tampa

Speaker: 00:33:26

at the shop around the corner.

Speaker: 00:33:27

No, he shipped it to the shop.

Speaker: 00:33:28

Or he shopped it.

Speaker: 00:33:29

There was something wrong with it.

Speaker: 00:33:31

Needed rebuilt.

Speaker: 00:33:32

Needed to be rebuilt.

Speaker: 00:33:33

And they had been negotiating talking

Speaker: 00:33:35

about can he maybe buying it from him.

Speaker: 00:33:37

Well, Troy comes running over to me

Speaker: 00:33:39

and he goes, hey, I'll trade you that

Speaker: 00:33:41

truck mount unit for that CRB machine.

Speaker: 00:33:44

So the joke is, I got the

Speaker: 00:33:45

truck mount for a dollar.

Speaker: 00:33:47

Because I paid one dollar, I won

Speaker: 00:33:49

the truck mount and traded it.

Speaker: 00:33:50

It's about a...

Speaker: 00:33:50

The other machines were about two

Speaker: 00:33:52

grand, so I had a buddy rebuild it.

Speaker: 00:33:54

To buy that machine today...

Speaker: 00:33:58

It's ridiculous.

Speaker: 00:33:59

So it's very powerful.

Speaker: 00:34:01

I mean, probably one of the most

Speaker: 00:34:02

powerful machines you can buy.

Speaker: 00:34:04

So we got into that.

Speaker: 00:34:06

Yeah, we got into that for a dollar.

Speaker: 00:34:08

Wow, that's quite a story.

Speaker: 00:34:11

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:34:11

I won another machine too.

Speaker: 00:34:14

I won another machine that's what, 6, 000?

Speaker: 00:34:17

Yeah, that portable we use for high rises.

Speaker: 00:34:19

They would draw your name

Speaker: 00:34:20

and I kept joking around.

Speaker: 00:34:21

I'm going to win that grand prize.

Speaker: 00:34:23

I'm going to win that grand prize.

Speaker: 00:34:24

And we're at a pool party in Vegas.

Speaker: 00:34:27

And Ken's sitting at the table with my

Speaker: 00:34:29

mother, and they're drawing prizes, so

Speaker: 00:34:32

I get up and walk around to the opposite

Speaker: 00:34:34

side of the pool, where the podium

Speaker: 00:34:35

and the stage is, and I'm just kind of

Speaker: 00:34:37

standing there, next to a tree, waiting,

Speaker: 00:34:39

and all of a sudden, Larry, the guy

Speaker: 00:34:42

who runs the show, who knows us very

Speaker: 00:34:44

well, pulls out the name for the grand

Speaker: 00:34:46

prize, and he looks around, and he goes,

Speaker: 00:34:53

I've never seen her run so

Speaker: 00:34:54

fast in those stilettos, man.

Speaker: 00:34:55

My mom's like, what's going on?

Speaker: 00:34:57

And Ken's like, she just won something.

Speaker: 00:34:59

She's up on the stage.

Speaker: 00:35:00

And then he sees me standing next

Speaker: 00:35:01

to this big portable machine.

Speaker: 00:35:03

He's like, oh, she just

Speaker: 00:35:04

won the grand prize.

Speaker: 00:35:08

Keep going on some interesting stories.

Speaker: 00:35:09

Oh yeah.

Speaker: 00:35:10

We've got 30, I think

Speaker: 00:35:11

you guys have a book.

Speaker: 00:35:12

I think you got an absolutely

Speaker: 00:35:14

natural book of, of stories that

Speaker: 00:35:16

you could probably Oh, I could write

Speaker: 00:35:17

a book based on a lot of things.

Speaker: 00:35:19

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: 00:35:20

If nothing else, your, your beginning

Speaker: 00:35:22

years and, and subsequently, yeah.

Speaker: 00:35:25

I knew very famous people.

Speaker: 00:35:26

I knew Dr.

Speaker: 00:35:27

Martin Luther King Jr.

Speaker: 00:35:28

As a kid.

Speaker: 00:35:29

I sat on his lap.

Speaker: 00:35:30

Uh, my Jesse Jackson's, uh,

Speaker: 00:35:33

stepmother read us Bible stories.

Speaker: 00:35:36

Um, we had the same birthday.

Speaker: 00:35:39

And, uh, that's where I got my,

Speaker: 00:35:41

uh, conservative values from.

Speaker: 00:35:44

And, um, my mother was best

Speaker: 00:35:47

friends with Anne Frank.

Speaker: 00:35:48

She's from Holland.

Speaker: 00:35:49

Holland, The Diary of Anne Frank.

Speaker: 00:35:51

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:35:51

So my mom lived, was in Holland

Speaker: 00:35:53

under occupation by the Nazis.

Speaker: 00:35:54

Yeah, she unfortunately died

Speaker: 00:35:56

at the age of 84 in Frankfurt.

Speaker: 00:35:58

Oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker: 00:35:59

Her family was in the Dutch underground.

Speaker: 00:36:03

Um, I mean, yeah, you've got to start,

Speaker: 00:36:11

you've got a publishing, uh, career again.

Speaker: 00:36:13

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:36:18

Is there anything about being in a family

Speaker: 00:36:20

business that you know now that you wish

Speaker: 00:36:22

you had known when you started this.

Speaker: 00:36:25

I wish we had known more about

Speaker: 00:36:28

the Small Business Administration.

Speaker: 00:36:31

Because we didn't know any of that in

Speaker: 00:36:33

the small business development council.

Speaker: 00:36:34

We didn't know that and well, I try

Speaker: 00:36:36

to get an SBA loan and I couldn't.

Speaker: 00:36:39

Okay, so I had to I had to basically

Speaker: 00:36:42

my vehicles I had to pay for

Speaker: 00:36:44

where we, we pay for everything.

Speaker: 00:36:45

We got, we didn't get any loans.

Speaker: 00:36:48

The only time we got a loan

Speaker: 00:36:49

was when my dad was working for

Speaker: 00:36:51

General Motors and I could buy a

Speaker: 00:36:52

vehicle with option a and get like.

Speaker: 00:36:55

A discount and you can finance the truck

Speaker: 00:36:58

mount with the truck at five percent and

Speaker: 00:37:00

I did that twice with two trucks Okay

Speaker: 00:37:07

Minimizing debt in your business

Speaker: 00:37:09

Yeah, use your money wisely.

Speaker: 00:37:11

I mean, you know, we're practically

Speaker: 00:37:13

debt free Yeah, our goal is to pay

Speaker: 00:37:16

the house and the one credit card we

Speaker: 00:37:18

took out to buy the generators, right?

Speaker: 00:37:20

We're paying Payments

Speaker: 00:37:22

are 70 bucks a month.

Speaker: 00:37:23

We're paying 500.

Speaker: 00:37:25

So knock it out of the way.

Speaker: 00:37:26

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:37:27

Well, so if somebody's listening

Speaker: 00:37:28

to this, um, in the future, what

Speaker: 00:37:31

service area is within reach?

Speaker: 00:37:35

Do you go across the country or?

Speaker: 00:37:37

No, we don't go across the country.

Speaker: 00:37:39

It's just two of us.

Speaker: 00:37:40

We do mainly Hillsborough,

Speaker: 00:37:42

Pinellas, Polk and Pasco.

Speaker: 00:37:44

We do a lot of work down in

Speaker: 00:37:46

the Sarasota- Bradenton area.

Speaker: 00:37:47

We work with Neal Communities,

Speaker: 00:37:49

which is a huge builder up there.

Speaker: 00:37:51

So, if there's any builders up there,

Speaker: 00:37:52

we do some amazing things with floor

Speaker: 00:37:54

cleaning, like removing paint, drywall

Speaker: 00:37:57

dust, uh, wood glue, that kind of

Speaker: 00:37:59

stuff, we can get all of that off.

Speaker: 00:38:01

Post- construction cleaning?.

Speaker: 00:38:02

Shaw Mills referred me to them.

Speaker: 00:38:03

I had to develop the system,

Speaker: 00:38:05

because I couldn't get it out, so

Speaker: 00:38:06

I developed a system that works.

Speaker: 00:38:07

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:38:10

So, for somebody to reach you, I

Speaker: 00:38:11

know your website is Accent American.

Speaker: 00:38:14

Accent, like, accent on a...

Speaker: 00:38:16

Right.

Speaker: 00:38:16

And American, there's an N on the end.

Speaker: 00:38:19

American.

Speaker: 00:38:20

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:38:20

With an N.

Speaker: 00:38:20

American.

Speaker: 00:38:21

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:38:22

And I'll make sure I put

Speaker: 00:38:23

that in the show notes.

Speaker: 00:38:24

Um, it's phone number there

Speaker: 00:38:26

or through the website better.

Speaker: 00:38:28

Um, you can phone us if people want to

Speaker: 00:38:32

contact us by phone at 813 621 6015.

Speaker: 00:38:34

That's what you call when

Speaker: 00:38:37

you want it really clean.

Speaker: 00:38:38

All right.

Speaker: 00:38:38

If I could give advice to mostly

Speaker: 00:38:41

to consumers, um, You got to be

Speaker: 00:38:44

careful of national franchises

Speaker: 00:38:46

because they're not certified.

Speaker: 00:38:48

The only certification,

Speaker: 00:38:49

you can't create your own.

Speaker: 00:38:50

The only certification is the

Speaker: 00:38:51

Institute of Inspection, Cleaning

Speaker: 00:38:53

and Restoration Certification.

Speaker: 00:38:55

So anyone going in, anyone

Speaker: 00:38:56

can get in this business.

Speaker: 00:38:57

They get an occupational

Speaker: 00:38:58

license to do business.

Speaker: 00:38:59

They say I'm licensed.

Speaker: 00:39:01

They get insurance and bonding, but

Speaker: 00:39:03

they don't know what they're doing Go to

Speaker: 00:39:05

school and learn learn the science first.

Speaker: 00:39:08

Yeah Definitely learn this way to get

Speaker: 00:39:11

into this kind of business definitely

Speaker: 00:39:13

go to the IICRC Then get in some of the

Speaker: 00:39:17

the facebook groups that are out there

Speaker: 00:39:19

Um truck mount forums is an amazing

Speaker: 00:39:22

one Rob is great about supporting other

Speaker: 00:39:25

people and he doesn't allow any crap.

Speaker: 00:39:28

He doesn't allow people to bash each other

Speaker: 00:39:30

Or someone to try and steer someone wrong

Speaker: 00:39:32

deliberately cleaners connect cleaners

Speaker: 00:39:34

connect is another There's a lot of people

Speaker: 00:39:36

out there who are willing and able to help

Speaker: 00:39:39

you if you want to get into this Yeah,

Speaker: 00:39:42

someone can run any business look for

Speaker: 00:39:44

those look for those chamber of commerce

Speaker: 00:39:46

is great for that Give me an example

Speaker: 00:39:48

Let's say you bought a brand new carpet

Speaker: 00:39:49

and you have the new warranty required.

Speaker: 00:39:51

You got to clean it every 12 to

Speaker: 00:39:53

18 months whether it looks dirty

Speaker: 00:39:54

or not because of soil and sand.

Speaker: 00:39:56

You got to have an

Speaker: 00:39:57

IICRC certified cleaner.

Speaker: 00:39:59

If you hire just anybody and they

Speaker: 00:40:01

come in and they spray a pH about 10.

Speaker: 00:40:04

6 You just fried your stain protection.

Speaker: 00:40:06

You never even knew it.

Speaker: 00:40:08

It's gone.

Speaker: 00:40:08

Yeah, one of the one of the biggest

Speaker: 00:40:10

Things I tell business people all the

Speaker: 00:40:13

time is network get out there meet

Speaker: 00:40:17

people We don't spend any money on

Speaker: 00:40:20

advertising or marketing None at all.

Speaker: 00:40:23

Zero.

Speaker: 00:40:24

She, we track every call.

Speaker: 00:40:25

We it for years because of networking.

Speaker: 00:40:28

It's referral.

Speaker: 00:40:29

We started networking heavily

Speaker: 00:40:30

back in oh seven and made lots of

Speaker: 00:40:33

great contacts and we foster those

Speaker: 00:40:35

relationships with those people.

Speaker: 00:40:37

We make sure we stay in front of 'em.

Speaker: 00:40:39

We make sure we keep in touch.

Speaker: 00:40:40

That's where our business comes from,

Speaker: 00:40:42

is from that small circle is where

Speaker: 00:40:44

we're getting all of our business.

Speaker: 00:40:47

Beginning when you in a new company,

Speaker: 00:40:50

you're going to be, you got to create

Speaker: 00:40:51

a customer base problem with people who

Speaker: 00:40:54

call you see SEOs and stuff like that.

Speaker: 00:40:57

They don't work for us

Speaker: 00:40:58

because let's be honest.

Speaker: 00:41:01

If you're at the, if you're in house

Speaker: 00:41:02

floods and you're at the computer,

Speaker: 00:41:03

you're not going to go online to

Speaker: 00:41:05

look for a water damage company.

Speaker: 00:41:06

You probably go call your insurance or

Speaker: 00:41:08

call someone, you know, you're going to

Speaker: 00:41:09

call your neighbor or your mom or somebody

Speaker: 00:41:13

and go, Hey, this is what happened.

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What do I do?

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Because people don't know what to do.

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Now, if you want to clean a carpet

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or a floor and you don't know

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what to ask, we've educated, but.

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People how to market us and referral.

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You don't know what to ask.

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So you go, you see an advertisement

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or you see something on Google and

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you call and your first question is

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how much I don't have time for how

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much I don't have time to explain.

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I don't need 1000 calls a day.

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To spend 10 minutes trying to book someone

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I'm going to book someone that hey you

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so and so used you and I want to do

Speaker: 00:41:47

boom Right, they're ready to hire us and

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pay so how much callers are the leads?

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We don't want leads.

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No, we want referrals.

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And that's the hardest

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thing to explain To an SEO.

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We can get you the phone rings I don't

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want the phone to ring with someone I

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have to sell to And getting back to that

Speaker: 00:42:04

you're asking how how to communicate

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with us I communicate with my clients

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the way they want to communicate.

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If they want to go on to Facebook and

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get to us through Facebook Messenger,

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I will respond, text message, LinkedIn,

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Instagram, however they feel most

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comfortable with how I deal with them.

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She said clients, not customers.

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There's a big difference in our industry.

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A client values you.

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Customer values price and they just keep

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moving to the next price And a lot of

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these guys get caught up and they go

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out of business and guys like us buy up

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their equipment Because they they pay

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for all this stuff and point for click

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and this and they got no work coming

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in So they end up going really really

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cheap to get volume and they're stuck and

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they work themselves to death They can't

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afford an oil change change the tire.

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They can't afford the right

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insurance It all compounds.

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Because you're selling a service.

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If Coke or Pepsi, if

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you're like Coke or Pepsi.

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Either one.

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Yeah, you're going to

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buy it, which is cheaper.

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You can measure it, you can

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touch it, you can feel it.

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But you can't with a service.

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Sounds like you've got a

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consulting business there.

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You could also start . Oh, I, yeah.

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And that's the hardest

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thing to explain to people.

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Well, there, there's several

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companies in this area that we

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have mentored in this business.

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Yeah.

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I've helped our competitors because

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the more of us they are, the more who?

Speaker: 00:43:27

The tide rise.

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The boats rise.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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Exactly.

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That's the crap floating in the water.

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And you can clean it up.

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So what we do right now, other

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than a damage, we probably

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don't work most 20 hours.

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Two, three days a week.

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That's it, but we're higher end.

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And we built our lifestyle, we got our

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stuff paid off, you know, because at some

Speaker: 00:43:53

point we're going to walk away from this.

Speaker: 00:43:55

Not yet, we still love it.

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Now I'm going to die here

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on this property, sorry.

Speaker: 00:44:01

Well, if someone, I mean.

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Well, it's about a million.

Speaker: 00:44:05

We have eight acres and we've got

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our cows and we've got our chickens.

Speaker: 00:44:10

We've had our pigs in the

Speaker: 00:44:11

past, got our crop, got our

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garden and that kind of stuff.

Speaker: 00:44:14

And it's peaceful and it's quiet and.

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We have great neighbors, so, and

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our daughter is a block away.

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We turned down a wonderful...

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So, you brought that up.

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A lot of family businesses, you know, the

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concern in a family business is, is that

Speaker: 00:44:28

succession of what, what happens to the

Speaker: 00:44:29

business when I'm no longer able to work.

Speaker: 00:44:33

You don't want it.

Speaker: 00:44:34

She doesn't want it.

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She has no interest, so we get to the

Speaker: 00:44:36

point where we're going to retire.

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We would just say, hey, you know,

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come buy the equipment here.

Speaker: 00:44:41

Okay, so you're basically just,

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your plan is to liquidate and

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just shut the business down.

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Unless somebody wants to take

Speaker: 00:44:47

that name, then, I mean, if they

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want to buy the business as a

Speaker: 00:44:51

whole, then we would sell it.

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Now, we turned down a 1.

Speaker: 00:44:54

6 million dollar offer in 2009

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from a builder, but we said,

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if someone comes along with 3,

Speaker: 00:44:58

4 million, I will consider it.

Speaker: 00:45:01

Yeah, you know, because 1, 000, 000, 1.

Speaker: 00:45:04

6, you go buy a house for 600, 000.

Speaker: 00:45:07

You can't live on 1,

Speaker: 00:45:09

000, 000 for 30 years.

Speaker: 00:45:10

I, I, I couldn't.

Speaker: 00:45:14

Well, our financial planner said if we

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had 750, 000 to invest, we could retire.

Speaker: 00:45:20

Well, that's that.

Speaker: 00:45:20

Yeah.

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But, but so a million.

Speaker: 00:45:24

Well, it sounds like with, you know,

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the ability to sell insurance to

Speaker: 00:45:28

create a publishing empire with all

Speaker: 00:45:29

your stories and to consult with

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other cleaners, you know, that you

Speaker: 00:45:33

could do basically over the Internet.

Speaker: 00:45:35

Multiple options.

Speaker: 00:45:37

Yeah, this has been such a pleasure.

Speaker: 00:45:40

Thank you so much for joining us on our

Speaker: 00:45:42

podcast I see another interview coming.

Speaker: 00:45:44

We will see you soon.