Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Behind The Name With Co-Founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk | Nick Friedman

Starting point is 00:00:00 I don't know that people realize the amount of risk tolerance and or risk that's involved in growing a business and really the mindset you have to have. Yeah, I think it's a combination of risk tolerance and pain tolerance, quite frankly. It's said that there's a fine line between being bold and reckless. Like, I think fortune favors the bold. And of course, when you're reckless, you may completely drive off a cliff. And so you got to be mindful about which one you're being. This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production.

Starting point is 00:00:31 We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks? Turn it up. It starts right about now. Hey guys, what's up? It's time for Right About Now. I'm Ryan Alford, your host. We like to say if it's radical, we cover it. We're taking the BS out of business. That's why we got my friend, Nick Friedman. He is the founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk. What's up, Nick?

Starting point is 00:01:09 What's up, Brian? How are you, man? I'm good, brother. It's good to have you. I'm ready to talk trash. I love talking trash. Talking junk, talking trucks. Junk, moving trash.

Starting point is 00:01:20 You guys move everything. And we talked pre-episode. I've had personal experience. I don't mind saying I called up the hunks. I'm a proud heterosexual male, but I don't mind calling the hunks because they are the best movers in Greenville, South Carolina. So I'll start you out with that one right there. Hey, that was a softball, but yeah, we got 250 locations and we like to say that hunksKS stands for Honest, Uniformed, Nice, Knowledgeable Service. It's not just about the physical attributes, but it really is about saving the time, energy and hassle and headache of moving your stuff. Yes, I would agree. And they do it. We've moved quite a bit in the Alford family. We have four

Starting point is 00:01:58 boys and have moved around with a growing family. Those are future college HUNKS right there. Sign them up. They can be future franchise owners. Yeah. Hey, I like your outfit, the way it's run. So it's funny. My team introduced me to you, and I'm like, yeah, dude, I love those guys. And look, I've used you firsthand. So I was like, I'm ready to give them the seal of approval before he even comes on the show.

Starting point is 00:02:20 It's been our preferred movers. So I do appreciate that. But let's set the table for everyone a little bit. Nick, talk about your background and what made you start a moving company? Yeah. Yeah. I don't think many kids grew up saying, I want to start a junk removal and moving business when I grow up.

Starting point is 00:02:36 And I was not that kid either. I had been brought up to follow that more traditional career path. You get good grades, you get into college, you get a job and you move up the corporate ladder. career path. You get good grades, you get into college, you get a job and you move up the corporate ladder. And I had an internship while I was in college, was not fulfilling for me. This was right around the time the movie Office Space came out. If you remember that movie, the early 2000s, TPS reports and work sucks. And I was like, OK, what am I signing up for here? I got lucky the summer before my senior year of college. My best friend from high school,

Starting point is 00:03:20 his mom had a beat up cargo van from her furniture store. And she said, why don't you guys take the van? You can haul people's junk away. You can move their furniture. And then she paused for a second. She looked at us, looked us up and down. She goes, you guys could be like college hunks who haul junk. And then we just laughed about it at first. And we were like, actually, that's catchy. That's not what people really associate with your typical mover. So we made a flyer. We stuck it in mailboxes. The phone started ringing. And I realized that was the light bulb moment for me. People had a need for the service. And they thought the name was a pattern interrupt. It set us apart from everybody else in this crowded industry and ended up writing a business plan our senior year, won an entrepreneurship competition, gave us a little more confidence. And then we graduated and decided to make it a full year round venture. Today, we've got over 250 franchises across the country. I describe ourselves as a 20 year overnight success. It's been a long journey to get to where we are, but it's been a fun, fun journey nonetheless. I love it. And we could say

Starting point is 00:04:03 freshly minted international franchise entrepreneur of the Year, IFA. Hey, congratulations on that award. Thank you. Yeah, we just got back from the IFA Annual Franchise Conference. Over 6,000 attendees from all the different franchise brands represented. And Omar and I received Entrepreneur of the Year. It was a really cool honor to receive that. I remember going to the IFA conferences when we first started franchising our business and looking up to the Fred DeLucas of Subway and the Domino's Pizza founders and being like, wow, those guys are pretty big time. And to get that kind of recognition and accolade from the official Franchise Industry Association was a pretty cool testament, not just to meet Omar as entrepreneurs, but really it's the team folks we got running the show, the franchise owners all around the country. And then, of course, the hunks, the guys doing the heavy lifting.

Starting point is 00:04:53 That's the hardest part of the business right there. I love it, Nick. I'm also author of Effortless Entrepreneur. The path I wanted to go down first, Nick. It's funny you say the 20-year overnight success. I've been known to use that one myself. It only took 19 years of my 20 to get to that last year. And it's funny, isn't it, Nick, how you grow up and like you mentioned with school, like what you think you're going to do, what you're going to do. You do always think that success is a destination. And I think your journey and your growth, all that, you probably could tell us a

Starting point is 00:05:29 million stories of why it's not a destination. It's that constant journey. Talk about that entrepreneurial journey for you and when you guys really realized you had a franchise and just some of that growth path for you. Yeah, I always start the story with when we first began, we had high aspirations. We wanted to be a national brand, but we were doing all the work ourselves. So we're driving the truck, answering the phone, hauling the furniture. And we went out and bought an 800 number because we wanted to look like a bigger company than we really were. We put it on the back of the truck, but it was still routed to our cell phone. And so I'd be driving the truck and people would call the 800 number to complain about the driving. And I'd be in the one of the truck, but it was still routed to our cell phone. And so I'd be driving the truck and people would call the 800 number to complain about the driving. And I'd be in the one of the

Starting point is 00:06:07 driver's seat being like, we can't condone that driving in our company. We'll fire those guys when they get back to the office. Probably fired ourselves three or four times that first summer and realized very quickly that we couldn't scale a business if we were doing all the work ourselves. So one of our mentors recommended a book called The E-Myth Revisited by a guy named Michael Gerber. And when we read that book, it almost felt like it was written about us because really the message in that book is learning how to work on your business, not just in your business, creating a framework and a structure and a long-term vision with systems to help make that vision a reality and then start on the long march, as you called it, the journey to make it a reality. And so in that book, they also talked about franchising and the

Starting point is 00:06:48 idea of systemize your business in such a way that you could package it up and hand it to somebody else to run it as if it were a franchise, even if you're not thinking about franchising. But that sort of planted that word in the back of our head. And I'll be honest, we were probably a little naive when we jumped into franchising. We were like, hey, passive income, royalties, like these all sounded like easier ways to make money. And it was farthest thing from the truth. It was a very steep learning curve, very slow, long march to scale once we got into franchising the business, but realized that we did have a brand and systems that could be a platform

Starting point is 00:07:20 for other people to have business ownership themselves. So that was the path that we started down. And like you said, it was grinding in the early days. It was getting to a point where we could afford good people, making mistakes, hiring the wrong people. And then eventually things start to compound and the momentum is real. It starts to really fly. That flywheel effect starts to take shape. And all of a sudden you're taking your hand off the wheel and you look around, you're like, wow, this is a real business. And we're making the money that we always imagined we would. And then you're looking up and whoa, the mountain is much higher than we ever thought. We can beyond where we are right now. So you just keep climbing. Talk to me, Nick. I think a lot of there's books and things that talk about entrepreneurism or talk about franchising.

Starting point is 00:08:06 And I think, you know, one of the things that I've started to like think about them a lot with what it takes to go on these journeys and to do these things is something I, risk tolerance. Would you talk a little bit about that from your standpoint? Are both you and Omar, like how you guys managed risk? If you guys were always willing to throw it all in? Because I think back to that destination journey and all that, I don't know that people realize the amount of risk tolerance and or risk that's involved in growing a business and really the mindset you have to have. mindset you have to have. Yeah, I think it's a combination of risk tolerance and pain tolerance, quite frankly. And, you know, it's said that there's a fine line between being bold and reckless. Like I think fortune favors the bold. And of course, when you're reckless, you may completely drive off a cliff. And so you got to be mindful about which one you're being. When we first started, we were using motivation and doubters as our motivation. Like we told people what we were doing and a lot of people were skeptical.

Starting point is 00:09:10 They were like, you're going to quit your job to do what? Haul junk? And it's going to be called college hunks? What kind of stupid name is that? Are the guys taking their shirts off to move furniture? How do you decide who you're going to hire? We heard all that nonsense. I could hear it, man.

Starting point is 00:09:20 I could hear it. I could hear it. I could hear you hearing it. Yes, exactly. I still hear it to this day hear you hearing it. And I, you know, you had to push through it. I still hear it to this day sometimes when we tell people about what we do and they, they're not familiar with the brand for some reason, they haven't seen our trucks or it's in a market where we're just getting going. And so we use that as motivation. We always looked at it as, Hey, we're not throwing away our degree to start a trash business. We're going to go and

Starting point is 00:09:41 build something meaningful, impactful and lasting. And what's the worst case scenario? I was kind of, at least when we started out, had this worst case scenario in my mind. And OK, go back and get a job somewhere or go back and get better schooling or take the lessons that I learned and try to start a business and apply it to something else. But along the way, we just kept seeing more and more progress. And my dad gave me some advice recently, because I think once you get to a certain level of success, the risk tolerance, you have to be a little bit more guarded and weighted. So like when I was a lot younger, we started the business. No wife, no kids, no mortgage, no really responsibilities. responsibilities. Today, we've got a $300 million business, four kids, multiple homes, 5,000 employees around the country relying on this brand for their well-being. So the obligations and the responsibilities to all those stakeholders, including myself, are much greater. My dad gave me

Starting point is 00:10:36 a piece of advice. He said, Nick, you've got a great life, a great family. Just don't F it up. Don't mess it up. And I let that ring around in my head a little bit before making bets on the business or before over leveraging certain decisions. I think now we can afford to be a little bit more risk mitigated. And we've got really good people in our team that are good at telling us no, myself and my business partner, because as entrepreneurs, there's a lot of this notion of wanting to ready, fire, then aim. And I think you got to do a lot of that out of the gates. But then once you start to reach certain levels of success and you've got a successful business and enterprise, you need folks that are going to weigh the risk reward. And there's still folks

Starting point is 00:11:17 that will tell us no. And sometimes we'll override them because we just have this gut instinct that what this new marketing initiative is going to be worth it and worth testing. But I think the stakes get higher, the bigger things get. Yeah. Don't fuck it up, son. This is what he said. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to curse on you. You guys are taking BS out of business, so I guess I should have known better. The other piece of advice my dad gave me, this was motivating. And I think there is some power in setting expectations for the younger generation of what you are capable of. My dad, he said it jokingly, but he was like, Nick, you're smarter than I am. You're better educated than I was. If you don't do better than I did, you messed up.

Starting point is 00:11:58 You effed up. You fucked up. And I'm like, you know what, dad? I'm going to use that as motivation. I appreciate you giving me that gift to say that I am better prepared than you were and that I can go make something of myself. So I didn't view that as a as a knock, but really as a handing me the baton to say, go get it. I love it. Hey, sage advice from the old man. My dad's my best friend and confidant to this day. So I can respect still getting that knowledge from him. Yeah, that's great. Isn't it funny?

Starting point is 00:12:28 I've way surpassed anything that he ever did professionally, but it is still really comforting to be able to have somebody like that in your inner circle that you can just go and talk to and is going to give you just unfettered opinion. you just unfettered opinion. It may not be wisdom because they may not have been down the path that we're on at this point, but it'll be at least be a place from the point of love and trust. I do want to point out for people listening, Nick's given a lot of dropping some major bombs already. I just want to say this, like back to the bravery of the naming and that breaking through with college hunks hauling junk. Yeah, it rhymes and it's got alliteration and that's cool and all but in an industry that's not that sexy and not that cool typically to really break through both with the green color choice the orange and the name as a lifelong marketer i want to commend you with the boldness and like i have, if I was in the room when you wrote it on the board, I don't care if you were 2019 or whatever, I would have gone ding, ding, there's

Starting point is 00:13:30 a winner because that's going to break through and it's going to get attention and people talking and your friends could screw off. Ryan, I got goosebumps as you were saying that, because that, that really is what we, I don't know if we just innately saw that, but we were like, how do we stand out in a crowded landscape? And we were looking, actually, when we picked the colors, we knew the name was catchy. We knew the name was going to capture attention. When we picked the colors, we were looking at college sports teams. And we grew up in the D.C. area.

Starting point is 00:13:58 So we actually first looked at black and red, University of Maryland. But actually, my business partner went to University of Miami in Florida. And we thought, that's a small, private university, but their athletic program is infamous. The U, it's a widely known brand. So we said, look, orange and green, it's bright, it's colorful, it stands out. Now we tell people that orange is our playful company culture and the green is our environmentally friendly recycling practices because not everybody likes the Miami Hurricanes. But that was the idea. And there was another book we read, which kind of hits your point on marketing called The Purple Cow by Seth Godin. And he says, look, if you're driving down a country road and you see a field

Starting point is 00:14:34 of cows that are all the same color, you've always brown cows, you've seen them all before. You just keep driving. It's nothing unique or remarkable about it. But if there's a purple cow in that field, you're going to pull over, you're going to take pictures of it, put it on social media, tell your friends and neighbors about it. And then he goes on to say that the purple cow has to be the brand, the image, that's the sizzle, but it's also got to be the product or the service experience. That's the stake. So when we started the interview, you talked about you were a client, a customer of College Hunks Moving, and that you had a positive experience. So like the name or the colors might have been like, oh, that's a funny company. Let's give them a shot.

Starting point is 00:15:09 But then when you actually had us move you, that was the stake is, okay, I'm going to use them again in the future or recommend them to my friends and neighbors or talk about them on my show. And so I think that's really like why people I think can relate to our story is we didn't go try to invent TikTok or Snapchat or Facebook. We took a simple business, trucks and labor. We put a very intentional focus on a creative name, a creative image, and then a very intentional focus on the customer experience and the team member experience as well. And I credit that to the compounding effect of our, like we said earlier, 20-year overnight success. Yes. I like to say you got

Starting point is 00:15:46 a long road to haul if you're trying to be better, but if you're different, you'll win, baby. That's what that purple cow, purple horse, whatever it is. We would walk into networking events. My business partner and I, 21, 22 years old with bright orange and green polos or button ups on, and we might turn some people away or turn some people off. But we captured people's attention. We put in a marketing award application for the American Marketing Association, and we walked away with two or three awards that first year. And this was against like actual branding and marketing agencies. We were just running these campaigns ourselves. We knew we had something and that marketing was going to be the key

Starting point is 00:16:24 and branding was going to be the key to helping us separate ourselves over time. I want to pause for one second, Nick. I want to come back to some lessons and trials and tribulations and where we're going with the franchise here. But I have to say, you've got to have, we do, we talk about radical fun things here, Nick. You got to have some good stories. So you name your business College Hunk. You got to have a story or two of women or men or hell, who knows? People that call like expecting a certain experience or something.

Starting point is 00:16:59 There's got to be a story in there. Well, look, so I don't want to hear any of those stories. If they're happening, I don't want to hear any of those stories. If they're happening, I don't want to hear them because early on, that's not the brand that we're putting out there, but there are probably some brand confusion or mistaken consumers out there that have, and certainly in those early days, open the door when their bathrobe men or women said, Oh, you guys are the college hunks. Come on in. Let me show you around. And I'm like, listen, it ain't that kind of party. I just assumed that somewhere along the way in

Starting point is 00:17:32 those early days, people just being, I will say actually, you know, it was funny. We were, we were actually on the very first episode of the very first season of Shark Tank. Yeah. And we were, we actually weren't going to pitch College Hunks to go on that show. We were pitching a sister company that had popped into our head once. We were going to call it College Foxes Packing Boxes. The idea was like moving prep and organizing. Yes, I like that too. Yeah, the Sharks had the same reaction you just did. They were willing to invest, but they wanted equity in College Hunks. They didn't really think that the Foxes idea was a

Starting point is 00:18:02 great one. And in hindsight, it probably wasn't because we would have probably had a lot more of those sort of guys in trench coats calling and being like, hey, I got to move again. And in addition to that, the female is typically the household decision maker. So she doesn't want the Fox's around her husband. And most of the Fox's don't want to pack boxes anyway. So we scrapped that idea. We left it on the shelf. It was good publicity, good experience going on Shark Tank. But the hunks, yes, we've had those incidents where customers maybe get a little bit ambitious or confused about what they're going to get when we show up to the house and we have to dispel that upfront. But either way, and I think you guys, because I even been doing my research the first time I used you guys, kind of got underneath it. And look, let's be honest,

Starting point is 00:18:42 when somebody's going to be moving your 5,000 or 5,500 pound dresser or something, look, you need some muscle. That's right. Yeah. A lot back to the branding piece, like most of our branding, besides the name Hunks, isn't really what I'll say like sexualized or about physical attributes. Yeah, we got the guy with the logo sort of holding up the name. But most of what we talk about is, like I said, our brand promise acronym. We came up with that acronym, by the way, after we got tired of people asking us, are they all really hunks? We were like, you know what? We need a different answer for that. So now we come up with honest, uniform,

Starting point is 00:19:17 nice, knowledgeable service. And that has become our brand promise. We tell everybody that's what you can expect when you hire the hunks. Honest, uniform, nice, knowledgeable service. And so, yes. So the idea is, yeah, you want guys who are strong, going to be able to do the job, get it done. So you can just sit back and relax and drink lemonade while the work is taking place. They are professional. I will say that. So that's all that matters. The Shark Tank, you brought it up. I was going to ask. It's been a while. Weren't y'all, what, first season? It was like, you guys were early. Episode one, season one. Yeah. So we went into this show not knowing what to expect. We got an offer from Robert Herjavec. He wanted 10% of the company for 250,000 bucks, which would have valued the business about 2.5 million bucks. And we turned it down.

Starting point is 00:19:59 And we only had about four or five franchises at the time. So it probably was a fair offer. People always ask me, do you wish you had taken the deal? And I'm like, heck no. Because if I look at that, his business investment would be worth a hundred times that, maybe more today. So we'd be paying him $25 million plus on a $250,000 investment. I'd rather keep that $25 million to myself. And the other thing is we didn't know that those sharks at the time were going to turn into television celebrities. We had no clue that the time were going to turn into television celebrities. We had no clue that the show was going to be on for 15 seasons and all these guys were going to become basically TV personalities.

Starting point is 00:20:32 Glad that we did what we did. And the show reruns every now and again on C or on demand. So it's a gift that keeps on giving. Exactly. That's the thing, like with TV and stuff like just going on. That's the thing with TV and stuff. Just going on, I think people figure it out now, but you guys were smart and early with figuring out whether you take the deal or not. Maybe if you have a good enough idea, it's probably better that you don't take the deal. Right. But you get the repeated airplay of reaching frequency of television.

Starting point is 00:21:04 That was something, Ryan, I think we also figured out intuitively early on in our businesses. Whatever we got to do to get the name out there, let's do it. People might call you shameless promoters or publicity whores or whatever they want to call you. They're not out promoting something that they're doing. And if you're not going to promote yourself, who's going to do it? You've got to be the one that's promoting out of the gates. And eventually other people are going to experience what you're promoting and they're going to become promoters for you as well. So after Shark Tank, we went on a dating show for God's sakes called Millionaire Matchmaker. And my business partner picked up his date in a college hunks truck to go clean out a garage. Horrible date idea, amazing branding opportunity. And that show just got picked up on Netflix reruns from like almost 15 years ago. A whole new generation of people are watching that on demand that never had heard of College Hunks and they're seeing this stupid date fall apart. But there's the College Hunks truck on Netflix. And we've done Undercover Boss where Omar and I went in disguise and took a risk of exposing some of the warts in some of our franchise locations. That

Starting point is 00:22:00 show shines a magnifying glass on. So I like taking risks, like you asked earlier, being willing to put yourself out there and step out of your comfort zone to promote what it is that you're doing, especially in the early days, you got to be willing to do that and not be bashful about what other people are going to say or how they're going to judge you and so forth. What has, yeah, amen, brother. What's been the growth? I'm sure there's been stages being as large as you are now and the ambitions you have. We've been dancing all around the marketing. And obviously, once you get franchises, you get the name out there 250 more times with franchisees and stuff. But talk about what has been the path of marketing and branding holistically for your growth?

Starting point is 00:22:46 Yeah. Marketing and branding, it's science and art. And I will say that Omar and I are a little bit more on the creative, visionary art side of things. I can picture what happens if we get our show, if we get our company or brand on a TV show, or if we publish a book, or if we park our vehicles in a really high traffic corner, all the eyeballs that that produces, like I can just intuitively see that's the art side of it. The science side of it, which one might argue is a little more boring, not as fun or sizzly, one might also argue is more important than the art form, or at least equally important. And that's the understanding your consumer dynamics, understanding pay-per-click and search engine optimization,

Starting point is 00:23:30 understanding lead conversion and lead capture and lead nurturing and client follow-ups and all those sorts of things. So for those things that are a little bit more analytical and data-driven, we just brought in experts because I'm not as financially astute or sharp with analyzing the X's and O's. So we brought in marketing ninjas and financial strategists, both in the early days, part-time freelancers, because we couldn't afford somebody full-time. And now today we've got really powerful and skilled folks that can dial up the levers. And so I think it's been that combination of us being really creative, ambitious visionaries to get the name out there. And we talked about some

Starting point is 00:24:10 of the examples, the TV show or the parketing, as we call it. I bought a gift certificate. It was like a thousand bucks, but it was to have Omar throw out the first pitch at a Tampa Rays baseball game. And so he got to do that. And we all came in our branded t-shirts. There was a guy sitting next to us who was working for a different moving company up in Michigan, and he ended up buying one of our franchises. And he's our most successful franchisee in our system in terms of revenue per population. So he's just crushing it. He's netting over a million dollars a year. And so putting yourself out there, again again i can't stress enough how important that is but then having some of the strategists in your inner circle to help dial in the tactical levers

Starting point is 00:24:50 i love the throwing the baseball that's brilliant i love the guerrilla marketing and like just different ideas like that that they get you you just don't ever know especially you got how many hundred people there a thousand people there yeah watching the game. And it was on camera. So you get the video of it. You can make it live forever. Like I love this. That's the stuff that's fun for me. It's like people always ask, follow your passion. And I'm like, it's not like I was passionate about moving and junk removal, but I am passionate about the creative process, about promoting, about getting the name out there and seeing it impact others, how our franchise owners can take those systems into their market and that produces financial success for them and their employees. That's the stuff that gets me excited and gets

Starting point is 00:25:34 my juices rolling. So yeah, so I think that's also key as you're thinking about what am I passionate about? Maybe it may not be the specific business model itself, but it's the elements that go into building that business or building that brand that actually gets you moving. Oh, man. Don't get me on the passion patrol, baby. Following your passion is bullshit. Hey, you follow your passion when you make some money. What you're good at translates to success and money. I was very passionate about basketball in middle school, high school, and college. And I can tell you, I barely scratched six feet. My vertical barely scratches

Starting point is 00:26:10 probably 12 inches. And for a white guy, my three-pointer was not that pure. So if I just continued following that passion, I'd probably be mopping the floor in a locker room right now. Yeah. And don't get me wrong. You can follow your passion, but if you want the definitive role or way to high end success. Look, everybody's vision is different. If you just want to make it and you're happy with that, then certainly go do it. But it's I don't know, there's a lot of dangerous advice given out there sometimes with people. I agree. It's a cliche that gets defaulted to and there's layers to it that have to be really understood. Because if you just hear follow your passion, it's i'm gonna go do something i like yeah are you good at it and do you love it and can you get paid for it and is that going to continue to drive you collectively

Starting point is 00:26:54 exactly you gotta exist at the very least that's right what's the what's the goals man i'm sure you saw it out if you somebody would have told you 20 years ago if you'd been sitting exactly where you are now, oh shit, you'd take that, right? You'd sign that one, wouldn't you? Yeah, Brian, man, it's crazy. I've actually had a lot of reflection about this recently because we've achieved almost everything that I put on my vision board 10 years ago. 10 years ago, my wife and I wrote out a vision board and I'm looking at it, I'm checking the boxes on every single thing.

Starting point is 00:27:25 So now what? Right. Like you've achieved everything you set out to do. You don't just put your feet up on the on the table and drink martinis the rest of your life. So I used to think that was going to be what I would do. But I I've seen Nick Saban interviews and he won seven national championships and they asked him, how do you stay motivated year in, year out? And he said, complacency leads to bad decisions, lead to bad outcomes. And so then I reflected on my dad's advice. Don't fuck it up. I actually have a blank palette right now that I can think about, OK, these next 10 years of my life and I got four young kids. How do I want to weave them into my my day to day? I've got a business that's doing over a quarter million dollars and a quarter billion dollars, excuse me, in revenue

Starting point is 00:28:03 annually. How are we going to grow it to a billion and beyond? So I'm getting to and it's exciting for me because for the first time I'm able to do it out of a place of abundance as opposed to, I would say, a place of scarcity. Like everything up to this point was like, I want to have X, Y and Z because I don't have X, Y and Z. Now I feel like I've obtained and achieved X, Y, and Z. So now it's, okay, how can we bring more to the table to be more fulfilling, more rewarding for everybody that's part of this platform? So that's the exciting part for me. But yeah, if my 20-year-old self, my 30-year-old self would be very happy. When we first started the business, we were like, man, if we could just get it to a hundred million in system-wide franchise revenue,

Starting point is 00:28:43 wouldn't that be amazing? And we got there. And since we got there, we 3X that number. We're doing 300 million in annual sales now. So now it's okay, how do we 3X this number, but do it from a place of abundance, not a place of scarcity, so that I'm not always feeling like there's an empty void that I've got to fill? Because that was what drove me in the early days was that scarcity feeling. Yeah. It's's funny what it takes to get to a certain point is not the same thing you gotta create these new challenges for yourselves and new ladders and new things because the motivations become different and just it's like staying and that's so that's almost back to where we started the bold versus reckless and

Starting point is 00:29:23 how you might get to that next ring is different than what got you there but you still got to have that drive and passion so i want to give you like a two-parter there like respond to that what it takes from one to the next and then i would just think because i'm sitting here doing the math like when does it become and i'm sure you're not gonna give give away your exit plans here on the show, but does that, those things have to start to enter the brain or your mind on some level? It does. It's funny. So we sold about 25% of the company to a private equity group about three years ago. So I got a really nice liquidity event out of that and having that

Starting point is 00:30:02 chunk and then talk to some other people who have actually sold their entire companies or the majority of their companies, the psychology is a little bit different when you don't have the income producing asset that's generating cash flow year in, year out. And so having experienced that sort of in a micro, my expectation or anticipation of wanting to go just get a big bucket and then again, figure out what the hell I'm going to do with it has also shifted. It's okay. The asset that I have right now, the golden goose that's producing is this brand. And I'm coming out of this franchise conference that we just attended. I'm meeting all these other franchisors that have multi-brand platforms that they've started developing. And I'm like, why can't we become that? Once we start maturing out our franchise owner success and selling out of territory for college hunks franchises?

Starting point is 00:30:48 Why can't we start bringing in other whether it's home service franchises or other franchise concepts, utilizing our marketing, our cash, our financing, our call center and all the different resources we provided to our college hunks business? Why can't we do that for other businesses as well? So whether that involves bringing in additional outside capital or not, you know, that's- I have a podcast scheduled at this time. Jeff, my guy. Are you guys almost done? You're exactly what I was just thinking of, man. That's awesome. I'm just waiting on you, bro. It seems like my whole career I've been following you. You're always like two or

Starting point is 00:31:25 three steps ahead yeah man for those you guys don't know that's jeff dudin he's a franchise guru entrepreneur success mentor advisor friend of mine and very cool great surprise i don't know if you had him ready in the wings the whole time i didn't know he knew you he's here he's a friend and uh we he's on the radcast network his show on the home front is a part of our network. And he's a good buddy. And I did not know. I did not. That was not pre-released. I did not know that y'all do each other. That's awesome. Yeah, Jeff's awesome. I used to attend conferences when I talk about some of the franchise royalty that I would look up to. He's one that I'd just be taking vigorous notes from his sessions. to, he's one that I'd just be taking vigorous notes from his sessions. Yeah, he's awesome. No, that's awesome, man. It's funny. So what do you do for fun? What's an idea of fun for Nick? Doesn't have the worries of yesteryear, can probably do just about anything you want.

Starting point is 00:32:23 So like, where do you find happiness? Yeah, so what's funny is I used to have a lot where I still struggle with what I call FOMO, fear of missing out. And it's like I wouldn't want to miss the party, the trip, the conference, the meeting, the breakfast, lunch or dinner with this person or that person. This year, my mantra has been focus over FOMO. So I'm trying to scale back. I call it addition by subtraction. What can I remove from my plate that's actually going to make things more meaningful or impactful? And look, for fun, for me, I love spending time with my kids. I love spending time with my friends that are in my inner circle. I'm part of a group, Young Presidents organization,

Starting point is 00:32:54 my forum, which again, Jeff Duden is very familiar with, is really fun for me to go spend time with sporting events, travel, hanging out with my friends and family. Like those are the simple things that are fun. The Vegas benders of yesteryear are off in the distance of my rearview mirror because hangovers with four young kids just don't bounce back like they used to. Hey man, brother, I have four boys and I have to choose my moments or not at all. I will say it. When my friends would call me up and be like, Hey, we're going to go on a bachelor party or a boy's trip. Like I used to get anxiety about missing those trips, but now I sometimes will get anxiety about going on them because I realized like all the stuff that's going to have to be working in behind the scenes while I'm gone. And when I get back, all the stuff that I'm going to have to deal with in recovery. Yeah. I think

Starting point is 00:33:41 again, addition by subtraction. Do you got any fun projects or anything with the brand, with content, anything that's upcoming that you could talk about? Nothing that's going to really shake up the audience right now. Last year I did what I would call my fun side quest. I produced and acted in a movie. It was called Bezos, the beginning it's on Amazon prime and all the different streaming on demand networks. It was the first movie ever made about Jeff Bezos. It's a biopic. And I played the role of Shell Caffin, who was the first employee that Bezos hired to

Starting point is 00:34:16 come work on the garage programming. So it was a fun stretch of the comfort zone for me. It was sort of a bucket list item for me. Some people run marathons or climb mountains. That doesn't really appeal to me. I had done unscripted reality TV. This was the first opportunity for me to do a scripted movie. Great experience, but I'm not running out to do it again anytime soon. And then earlier this year, my business partner and I did a comedy, a stand-up comedy show called the CEO Comedy Challenge, where we performed at the Tampa Improv. Each,

Starting point is 00:34:43 we performed a 10-minute set. It was pre-prepared, and we had a comedy coach, again, stepping out of my comfort zone, doing something that may be a little bit outside of the box. But other than those two things that I would call side quests, just trying to lock in and stay focused. The housing market isn't booming right now, so our franchisees are maybe struggling to get leads and put jobs on the calendar. So we want to support them the best we can to make sure they can weather the storm, which I think is actually the best time to be in this sort of business because things aren't just raining and falling into your bucket, into your lap, which makes you become a better business

Starting point is 00:35:17 owner. When we first started franchising College Hunks, it was like the peak of the housing downturn of 2008, 2009. And had we not experienced that, I don't think we would have gotten to have exercised the resilience muscle or the grit muscle that we ultimately did. Two more questions here, Nick, that kind of come to mind as we close out, finishing up here with Nick Friedman, founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk, co-founder, excuse me. Nick, I think about along the lines of what you're just talking about with business and leads and this interplay of lead generation versus brand awareness it's always a hot topic for me because i've been in the business for 22 years and it was really all about brand and mass awareness for a lot of my early career working

Starting point is 00:36:03 in wireless the first iphone like a lot of my early career working in wireless, the first iPhone, like a lot of big brand stuff. And then performance marketing came along and it was all about performance, but everybody forgot you got to have a brand too. Talk to me about how you guys look at that interplay and don't, do you or do you not? Is it just all data now? Like I can just go swoop up the leads or do we have? No, I think, you know, I think we are branding guys, obviously by nature. And so that we naturally lean in that direction. And like I said, we've had to hire the scientists on the sort of demand generation side of things.

Starting point is 00:36:39 But we think about marketing and what I call four buckets. It's get found. we think about marketing in what I call four buckets. It's get found. So that's when people are searching for movers or searching for haulers, it's being able to be top of Google or top of Bing. It's find them, which are things like behavioral direct mail. People list their home for sale. They get a mailer that are called. It's asking them if they need movers. There's a loyalty development, which are things like remarketing and rebuilding relationships with your existing clients. And then there's the broader bucket that I call build the brand, which is things like parking, parking, putting the trucks out in visible locations, the little bandit signs, the guerrilla marketing stuff that you don't have a direct ROI or response from necessarily.

Starting point is 00:37:18 But maybe when they're searching for movers and your name pops up, the fact that they saw your truck in the community is going to resonate with them. Now they're going to click on your link over the competitor. So I think it's an integrated approach to me and you'll have tactics within each of those buckets, but I don't think you can neglect branding for everything else. And that's why I think some of these aggregator companies that have multiple companies on them, multiple brands within them, they sometimes struggle because they don't have a brand themselves. So they're spending so much money on Super Bowl ads and mainstream marketing because they've got to

Starting point is 00:37:55 drive traffic to their site for people to then select a service platform through their site. Yeah, you can. Familiarity breeds comfort. And so you could be at that top of the list on Google, but if they've never heard of you, then there's a pause, right? There's friction. And so when you build the brand and you have a standout brand with a name and the colors, it helps. Absolutely. Helps a lot. Absolutely. Finally, Nick, a lot of people listen. Finally, Nick, a lot of people listen. It's so hard I find in these interviews to convey the struggle and the realness of what it takes to build a business. We're talking about it at a high level.

Starting point is 00:38:38 We could have a four-hour discussion probably about every minutia of your journey. I mean, probably a four-day discussion. So it's like wanting to hit the high strokes, wanting to give value to people listening. For someone listening, is there something beyond the points we've talked about that ultimately can help someone carve out that path or push through from idea to execution? Anything, any final wisdom you can share from your journey? Yeah, everything we've talked about fills the bucket of the journey, but I always say urgency of effort, patience for results. Like you got to be urgent and somewhat manic about the effort that you put in every single day. And you try to be a magnet for others to want to put in that much urgency and effort as well. But you got to be patient because the results don't come overnight.

Starting point is 00:39:26 And if you beat yourself up for the results day in, day out, you're going to beat yourself up and your health is going to suffer. You're going to make haphazard decisions trying to shortcut the success, which is ultimately going to backfire on you. And so I think having the urgency of effort, the patience for the results is a good mantra to tuck in the back of your head along the entire path of the journey.

Starting point is 00:39:49 A lot of wisdom there, brother. I love that. You and I are like, I don't know if some of these quotes I thought I came up with, I'm joking, but we're reading out like the same playbooks. Like you named some obscure ones that I'll say that no one's ever heard of. And I'm like, damn, my boy, Nick, we're reading the same journals or we own the same wavelength. I love it. I love that last one. I don't know if that's yours or if that's from a book, but that one, that one's great. Urgency for effort, patience for results. Well, I appreciate it. It's funny. I heard, I don't know if you guys know Cameron Harold. He's an entrepreneurial speaker, but he says he'll credit the quote the first two or three times he uses it in a speech. And after that, he just starts taking it as his own. I used to do that. I've forgotten who I've gotten some of these quotes from. Some

Starting point is 00:40:30 of them are my own. Some of them I've said so many times or I've modified them slightly. You ink it, you own it. You just start saying it. Hey, have those people founded college hunks? Have they gone on Shark Tank? Have they done and built a $350 million business? I don't think so. Probably not. It's all kudos to you, brother. I really appreciate you coming on. Where can everybody stay up with everything you're doing and the hunks?

Starting point is 00:40:57 Yes, I've got a personal website, nickfriedman.com, F-R-I-E-D-M-A-N. Also, all my social media handles is Nick Friedman and the number one, Nick Friedman one. Somebody had already beaten me to the, that Nick Friedman. And then of course, College Hunks is a pretty simple collegehunks.com or collegehunkshaulingjunk.com. Takes you, if you want to type out the whole name, takes you to the same place. You can learn about franchising. You can learn about moving and hauling services if you need one of those and see if we're in your market. I love it, brother. Thank you so much for coming on the show. We appreciate having you.

Starting point is 00:41:28 Yeah, thank you guys. Hey, that was Nick Friedman and he was right about now. This is Ryan Alford. Go to find me at Ryan Alford on all the social media platforms. Go follow me on TikTok. I'm blowing up over there. We'll see you next time. What about now?

Starting point is 00:41:41 To listen or watch full episodes of Right About Now on the web, go to ryanisright.com or follow at Ryan Alford on all social media platforms.

Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Behind The Name With Co-Founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk | Nick Friedman

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