The Entrepreneur DNA - From $2,500 to 160 Locations: The Truth About Scaling Fast | John Curri

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

In this episode, I sit down with John Curri, who built and sold a 160-location cell phone franchise before he turned 28, only to get humbled when he jumped into real estate with a god complex and learned some hard lessons about leverage, markets, and ego. We break down how he started with a $2,500 credit card, why execution matters more than capital, what really happens after a big exit, why most people shouldn’t own homes, and how he’s now building a national concierge-style property management company designed to eliminate the biggest headaches homeowners face. This one is about grit, humility, scaling smart, and building legacy over ego. About John Curri John Curri is a serial entrepreneur, real estate investor, and business builder who scaled a 160-location cell phone franchise across 38 states before exiting in his twenties. Since then, he has built and sold multiple service-based businesses and grown a diversified real estate portfolio including residential, commercial, and investment properties. John is currently focused on scaling innovative service businesses, including One Call Management, a concierge-style property management company designed to simplify home and investment property ownership through a single point of contact for maintenance, repairs, and facilities management. He is passionate about execution, leadership, building recurring revenue models, and creating long-term legacy through business ownership. Connect with John Curri Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncurriTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@johncurriFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/johncurriLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncurri One Call Management:https://onecallmgmt.com About Justin: Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The Science of Flipping podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur with over and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience. Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence. Connect with Justin: Instagram: @thejustincolby YouTube: Justin Colby TikTok: @justincolbytsof LinkedIn: Justin Colby Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What is up, the entrepreneur DNA? This is going to be an incredible, incredible episode. I have a guest who not only built a business to exit in his 20s, he now is a real estate mogul and has a lot of different opinions and insight on how you can build a business to sell and how real estate is the best asset there is in the world. John Curry is here. What's up, dude? Glad to be here, Justin.

So we started off by saying you were able to build and sell a business in your 20s. by the way, if you guys don't know what kind of feat that is, that's really an impressive feat. We all want to grow in scale businesses. This guy's already done it in his 20s and now we're here. So talk to us about your first business venture, cell phone repair. These little things, guys, these guys that break and chip and shut down all the time, you were able to create a franchise model. Yeah.

How many locations did you have? We had 160. 160 locations fixing phones. 38 states. Yeah, it started as a cell phone repair. And then it turned into like a big accessory business. No kidding. So we basically were designing, manufacturing, our accessory lines of products.

Then we did repair. It was a ride, man. 22 to 28. I was in that business. It was quick. So you, now, you're 22 years old. How do you even get into that? You're just like, I'm a hustler.

I'm going to go figure out a way to make some money. Is that kind of the impetus of the little thing? or what? I mean, I was working at an AT&T retailer. Actually, AT&T corporate. Guy walks in. He's like, you know, he says, I need to pay my bill. He walked in the back of the store. I said, oh, yeah, it's back there. And so he pays his bill. He walks to the front. And I said, hey, what's that? What kind of phone is that? He goes, oh, I bought it here. He said, he had a crazy colors on it. This case had a bunch of crazy colors on it. I said, where do you get that? He goes, you know what? I'm selling them. I sell them at the flea market.

So we exchanged phone numbers. Yeah. I called him when I got out and I realized this guy was like kind of working on the back of his truck. And then we became partners. I didn't have any money at the time. I got a $25,000 cash advance in my visa card. Oh, there it is. And we opened up a kiosk in the mall.

And we were basically a kiosk business. Yeah. And then two, three, four, those are long days. Five, six, seven long days. I mean,

no sleep, sleeping on the couch, hotel rooms, you know, sleeping in my car. And then I was, I was buying a house. and I called a friend of mine

and I said, hey, can you help me move in? He's like, sure. So he's moving and stuff, he's like, how'd you buy this house? I'm like, oh, I'm doing this business. And he goes, I heard you were doing that business. How's it going? I was going real well?

He goes, can I get involved? I sold him a location in Clearwater, Florida. Okay. And from there, it was like Clearwater, Tampa. Him or you? It was him. He kept buying? Well, basically what happened, I said,

look, man, it's 95% for you and 5% for me. Sure. And at that point, a bunch of my friends got involved, started scaling the business. Before I knew it, you know, tractor trailers are backing up to a warehouse. I'm, I have my own brand of accessory products. You know, we've got 4,000 items. We've got, you know, wireless dimensions stamped on everything. And, you know, I'm up until 3 o'clock in the morning talking to people in China. And I was saying to myself, am I, am I, am I, are we fixing phones? Are we selling accessories? Are we retailer? Are we a wholesaler? Are we a franchise? And we, and we,

What happened was we were all of that. So there was like five revenue streams and one business. And that's how I learned how to scale a company. So and guys, first of all, I want you guys to understand it. We have a friendship and we're a part of mastermind. We're big in real estate together. But this is something I've never known about John Kerr. This is incredible, dude.

So your, like your story of long nights, sleeping on couches, all in, just hustling. This is kind of what I would think is almost, I don't want to say it's the American dream, but anyone who's ever created anything, that's the story. Like anyone listening to this thinking they want to go create something special, you don't go to special without that. I mean, would you say, like, if someone wants to understand how to go build a business, that is the most important part of that?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the inner drive, the hustle, the want, you know what I mean? It's like playing against. It's like being in sports, you know what I mean? You got to want to win, you know? And for me at that point, I mean, I had, you know, I had nothing. to lose because I was young, right? Yeah.

But I also, you know, just gave up a pretty good job in corporate, you know, AT&T corporate. I could have moved up the chains, you know. Yeah. And I said, you know, it's it's fight or flight, right? Yeah. And so at that point, I looked at my credit card statement and I'm like, the interest is accruing, you know. And so it was like, let's do it. We got to just do it.

And so I realized I couldn't do it all by myself. Yeah. So really what I started doing is investing in. people. Sure. So the biggest thing I learned early on was to invest in people. Okay. And to just rinse and repeat and do things over and over again, uh, the same way. You took a pretty big risk. You went out and got, was it a credit card or a bank loan for $25? It was a credit card. It was just, it was basically, I had a, I had a credit card with a $25 a limit. Is there anything you've never invest? Like, there's nothing you've not invested in. And I'm not saying you, but as an entrepreneur,

there's no world that you make any difference in your business without investing in. do it first. Correct. Now, you invested in people, but initially you had to invest in the actual business, dollars and cents into the business to get it started. Correct. Most people have the hardest time with that one factor. Okay. How do I get started? Right. So now you're going through a different season of your life. You're in your late 40s. Go talk to the person like, how do you get started? How do you become John Curry that me and I'm sitting across from now that has a lot of success that we're going to talk about. But you started with a $2,500 credit card to go say,

fuck it, risk it all, charge it to the game, let's go. How does someone take this episode and have enough fortitude to get going on what they want to go do? You know, I think what happens with a lot of the people that I talk with, they think that they need a lot of money to get started. And so what I tell people is it's not, it's, there is the money factor. Sure. But it's really the execution.

a lot of people fail in the execution part. The money, I have a, I've had several companies that are self-funded, right? So you start with 2,500, you got 5, you got 10, you got 20,000, 2 million bucks. I mean, if you start parlaying your efforts, that money's just going to come. As a matter of fact, I've had, you know, a dozen companies. Yeah. And I have never bought a business over $25,000 with my money. So no one needs a lot of money.

No. They need execution. Yes. I find this to be one of the more truer statements in life. People want something they're not willing to go do to get it. I'll use a simpler version. People want a six-pack, but they are not going to eat healthy. Right.

It just doesn't exist. So you can't go want a business, want more financial freedom, want to make a whole lot more money, but not go execute on how to actually go do that. Okay. You don't need a lot of money. I'm literally doing a training in you and I are in real estate on how you can have 100% financing for all your fix and flips forever and never need a dollar of your own. However, people don't understand that and they think, I don't know how to get started and fix and flipping. You just don't know what I know or what John knows, right?

I mean, you know this to be true. Yeah. But it's the execution. So what happens and I'm sure you see this to be true is people get caught up in the fear of actually failing so they don't go execute. And it was never about the money to begin with. It was like, oh no, if I go try this and I. fail, now the ridicule of all that bullshit, right? The family, the friends, you know, everyone's going to make fun of me. Well, it's the fear, right? I mean, it's always the fear,

right? So you have to, you have to want it. You have to go all in and just failure is no option. Yeah. And, you know, what I like to do is I put the pressure on myself to perform and get it off the ground. And then it's the people that come with you along the way and the, and then you get the buy in from them, then all of a sudden, then you start to scale. But, you know, I'll tell you right now, if you're waiting for money to be successful, you're going to be waiting a long time. You wait a long time. No shit.

You don't need it. I have a buddy here. This podcast studio is an actual embodiment of everything you just said. The guy who started this studio that we're recording in was that person. Wow. He didn't want to wait. He was making a lot of money and knew he had more of a desire to go execute on something else besides loans. He was in real estate.

And you guys can talk offline. But the truer statement has never been said. about what like if you're waiting for money to go doing what you're doing you're going to wait and then you're not going to be fulfilled 28 years old you exit this company right what was that like it was wild man i mean i left my attorney's office um rich yeah i was that office look at the time i got in i don't know what i was driving some fly car at the time and uh this is this is what really and you exited in 2023 or you started in 2020 or i don't know i was driving some fly car at the time and uh I'm sorry, 2003.

You exited then or you started then? I exited. Okay. Yeah. It was like 90, 98 to 2003. So I get in my car and I'm like, wow, I got all this money. I got all this time. And so, you know, Monday comes around or whatever it was, the following week comes around.

I think we closed on a Friday. And I'm like, hey, you want to play golf today? Or today, you know, we want to go on the boat. And it's like, oh, we're working. We're busy. We're, you know, we can't, like, all right, well, like, let's kind of plan a vacation. and when do you want to do it. And everybody was busy.

Everybody was like, had their own life. And I'm sitting here and I'm like, well, I want to go do some fun stuff. Yeah. It was interesting. When I sat down with the guy who bought my business, who was very, very well known in Fort Lauderdale, by the way. Okay. He buys companies and scales them. And he said to me, I'm going to give you this pen.

It was a Mount Blanc pen. And he says, before you sign this paperwork, I just want you to know, if you can afford to do it every single day, it's no longer going to be fun. Had no idea what that meant. You're like, sure, buddy. Give me my money. Yeah. Yeah, okay, pal.

Yeah, books. I'm like robo-signing. I got like, you know, Carmel tunnel over here. I'm going to the thing. And then I don't know what it was. It was, you know, a couple of years later, and I said to myself,

I knew exactly what that meant. The fun is when you make things happen. The fun is when you have to, you know, you know, kind of make, make a deal here to go do this or do that. And he was basically saying, like, if you can go on your boat every single day, it's no longer fun to go on your boat. That's right. So I learned a lot about that. I stayed with the company for, they had me on a one-year contract. I stayed there for like less than 30 days. They paid me my balance. And I went out and, you know, basically said, what am I going to do? Yeah. And I went, I went in the real estate

business and opened a brokerage company and didn't have a real estate license. Sure. And I had been sell associate license, nothing. And I had been kind of flipping stuff. Yeah. And I was making some good money on the side. And I said, let's turn this into a full-time thing. So I just dove in and started buying real estate.

In your 28, I think you said, 20-year-old? Yeah. 20-year-old. Already buying real estate, just flipping or buying it and holding it? I was doing a variety of both. Sure. Yeah, I was doing like half and half, you know, I started getting a commercial commercial was like my big thing. I really was was like, you know, buying land and doing some commercial

buildings and deals like that. And it was, it was a crazy ride. I mean, I've learned a lot. And during that interim, the funniest thing that you bring up before we move on too far, when some, the rich guy who bought your business. Yeah. And tells you like, when you can do it every day, it's no longer fun. Right. It's the same, like, I'm from San Francisco. You know how many times I've walked across at Golden Gate Bridge. So what did times to remember? Zero. Oh, zero. You know why? Why? Because I can do it any day I want. Ah, it was always available.

It's always available. It's like how long do you go to the beach? Zero. Like I've literally lived here since 2021 and I've got the beach two times, maybe three. Gotcha. In Miami Beach. Yeah. And it's because you can do it out of time so you don't find the fun in it anymore.

Right. Right. And this is, to me, I believe this is where people, like I just heard a mutual friend of ours said something that I just didn't agree with fundamentally. And he said, I have a challenge celebrating my wins. Wow. I make 100 grand. I'm like, all right, whatever. I make 200 grand, uh, whatever.

And the reason why I don't fundamentally agree with it is how can you not celebrate a win like that? Fighting as hard as we fight as entrepreneurs. And the only thing I can put points to that answer is perspective. is everything becomes so much nicer, better, bigger winds when you know the other side of that wind. When you know the dark side, when you know the beatings you take. Then you will celebrate the living daylights out of $100,000 win. And it becomes perspective is if you don't put yourself in a seat of perspective,

it is very hard to enjoy much. It is. Because it becomes like this is what we do every day. This is what happens. Who cares? This is same thing with the bridge. Same thing with the boat. Yeah.

When it's all day, every day, and this is what you do, then you don't have any perspective. Take all that away and you're living under a bridge with no house and no car. And all of a sudden you have a boat to go on. That is a really lot of fun. Yeah. Right? Exactly. And so it's always about perspective.

And I think a lot of people in their life have to find perspective of where they're actually at. The other thing, I think some of us, like you and me, were built to drive. And if you're not driving to build something, you don't have the energy. because again, we sit in a place of like, okay, we make money, what we do. And, right? And so I'd encourage most people listening to this is like, if you're at a place where you're probably pretty comfortable, it just goes back to comfortable. It doesn't matter how much money you're making. Move.

Go do something to push yourself because otherwise you are being essentially kind of just, you know, mediocre, stagnant. You're just existing. Yeah, I right now, I can kind of relate. to the story you said, like, you know, you make 100 grand, you know, whatever. The money's great. Don't get me wrong. And, you know, we need it to exist. What I've been doing now is, in my mindset, I shifted and said, why do I want to make big wins?

I want to make big wins because I want legacy. I want to help other people. You know, there's some charitable things that I'm doing right now. And so for me, it's like, I'm not winning for myself. I'm winning for the other organizations I'm involved with and I'm winning for the people that are on my team. Yeah, yeah. So that's, you know, it's like you go from...

You're doing it for you. I want to go get rich. Yeah, so it's like it was kind of like when you start, you're an entrepreneur. It's kind of like you're playing golf, right? There's nobody on your team. You're playing golf, you're by yourself. It's your score.

Right. And then you start scaling your business and you become a football team. Right. And then you start getting to the point where you like, you buy the football. football team. Yeah. Right. So that's the evolution of being involved in business. And so, you know, there are people that are out that are just like, you know, I want to make money, want to make money, want to buy this, want to do that. But it's really about the things that you and I do.

Yeah. Which is teaching other people how to be the best version of themselves. Making impact on others. Yeah. We'll put perspective on a lot. Exactly. Right. And I think you're definitely at that place and we're going to get here. And I want to also now get back to now you jumped into real estate. But now we're getting too close to like the end. I want to get back to your 28, you jump in a real estate, you start looking at commercial, you start fixing and flipping, you start buying rentals. What was that journey like? Now, I mean, listen, fast forward, brokerage, a lot of investments.

Like you have a property management company we're going to be talking about like now you're way down this path. But at 28, what was that like getting started in a brand new industry? No experience, no knowledge, no real like education behind it, just pure grit and like, let's go. Yeah, this is where I had the God competition. complex, right? This was like, I'm God. I know what's going on. I can do anything. I can make money doing anything. And you know what happened? God slapped your hand. Oh, yeah. Face hand, back, butt. God dot, dude. Punch me in the throat. Everything. Yeah. You know, so, yeah. So, yeah. So there was a, there was a, there was a moment of humbleness that was, uh, that went for,

you know, several years. Yeah. And it was, it was, it was, it was, it was a beating. There is no one in this podcast I've ever had on, that has had any level of great success without a very similar story. It's just, you know, there's no one out there that just goes and doesn't get, you know, not punished by it. I mean, just like you encounter challenges because you've never been there before. Right. It's inevitable. Right. And so just like me, I have a very similar story.

I made it all about me. Look at me. I'm going to go build this amazing thing. You'll have 100 million in assets and da-da-da-da-da. and God just looked at me and was like, baller, it's not about you. Not about you for a second. It's not my hand.

And so how did you, you go into the real estate game? I'm sure you did pretty well until maybe you got a little egregious. Tell us a story of like, what actually happened when you get into the real estate game, then what happens? So when you get in the real estate game,

I call it the big boy game, right? You know, you've got properties, you've got, you know, your levers on some deals, you got this going on. You know, a tenant moves out. that another tenant moves out, and then you realize that, you know, you can't get the same amount of rent that you were getting before. So now you're 20% less. So, you know, my burn rate was was heavy.

Yeah. And all of a sudden, I had to make a decision. I'm like, what do I keep? What do I get, what do I get rid of? Yeah. And it was like, you know what? Here you go. Everything goes for sale.

Yeah. And I kept some of the properties, got rid of some of the properties. But, you know, realistically, you know, I wasn't in the control that I thought I was. because the market was more in control of me. And so the second... Well, you didn't know. I didn't know. And that's the challenge, right?

You know this. And you mentor and help other people. And now your life is really meant to help other people. People get into the game of anything, not just real estate, just business. And they don't have anyone guiding them. Right? Like, I get paid. I coach people to do this.

I get paid for my scars more than I get paid for the X's and O's. The X's and O's is what everyone wants to say. This is how you get rich. Here's the X's and O's. Here's the game plan. I get paid because I've been through it. I know exactly the pothole to not step in and where it's going to be and why it's going to be there. Don't go do that.

Do this instead, right? Right. That's why I get paid to coach. I would say you're now at a point where you had to go through it so you can lean into whether it be your charities or your churches or your community or your brokerage or all the people that you have in your world. You had to go be the tip of the spear to go eat that shit sandwich, which I know that taste. You need to be able to go do that. So you then can go back to them to say, hey, follow me because I am the one that can actually avoid the missteps that happened to me. Correct.

Yeah. Well, you know, it was humbling. And then it was like, you know, I was talking to my wife and she's like, what are you talking about? Like, it's just a mindset. Like, go out there and do it again. Yep. So I did it again, did it again. You know, I'm probably on my fourth life right now.

Sure. But, you know, really, it's really about making sure that you, you know, know, pick the right people along the way. You take care of those people. And, you know, you have to have a sustainable business that, you know, people, people either want the product or the service that you're selling. You know, I think the biggest thing for me is I tried to create new markets, right? Disruptor markets and, you know, things that had never been done before.

And those are great. Those are swinging for the fences. But I did notice that most of the time when I was doing something that was, you know, was kind of mainstream and did it a little bit better than somebody else. Yeah. That's when the wins really started to happen. So take something that people know how to do, but then make it your own, do it better, have your spin on it.

Yeah. And that's where you're going to get your left. You know, you don't need to. I mean, it's, I mean, my, I would say if there's one thing in life that I've always wanted that I don't have is inventing something, right? So you could spend a lot of time trying to invent something new. Yeah. But you and I both know, it's not a bad.

the product. Yeah. It's about the execution. That's right. Right. And it's about making things happen. So, you know, you know, you don't need to wait for the purple unicorn to come. Yeah. You know, just get involved at something that you like that you're doing. Do it better. Work harder. Work faster. Work smarter. And then that's going to happen no matter what you do. Yeah. And so now you're in a space of you're still in real estate in a big way. You pivoted maybe from, and correct me where maybe I'm misaligned, but you pivoted from more of a transactional buying rentals, fix and flipping into building out of brokerage, getting a lot more what's the word?

Passive? No, but, you know, blank on the word. Like, you're, the business model, I don't know, I literally can't think of. The business model of selling real estate versus buying and buying real estate. Traditional is the fucking word I was thinking. Okay. So you get into more of a traditional style of real estate. You get into a brokerage, license, listings, listings.

buying, selling, but also still keeping the fix and flipping. Right. Did that help you navigate kind of the storm that you went through to kind of normalize the storm, get back on even, you know, solid ground and then to grow the way you've grown? Yeah. See, what happens is for me as an entrepreneur is when you wake up in the morning, sometimes you don't necessarily have a playbook, right? Because you're the one that's making the plays.

Right. So what I've noticed is when I have a steady business that is, you know, really, estate brokerage, for example, and then I'm out doing fix and flips and I'm buying deals and doing land deals and stuff. That steady business that I have is keeping me grounded. It's keeping me organized. I'm able to use those resources that I have, right, on the home front to go out and do this other stuff and then come back home. And then go with other stuff and then come back home. And so what I've noticed with people is, is that when they either sell their company or they, you know, say, oh, I want to work by myself or I don't really want to, you know, do this again.

I think, you know, there's all different kind of personalities. But for me, I love the steady, the office open, people there doing transactions. That business actually brings me more deals on my other side. So it's kind of a feeder for that. Yeah. And so that's worked for me. It's having those people with me along the way to help me successful because I know I can't do it alone. That's right.

I'm not a solo guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so building a business, creating a brokerage, a lot. allows you to have an opportunity. You have a lot of people around you that can be better than you, no more in you,

and you're able to go run in the seat that you sit in. What do you think is your perfect seat as John Curry? I'm definitely a creator for sure. Okay. You know, I love starting stuff. I hate finishing it. I love coming back in the middle and then, you know, fixing it. So we have a joke in the office.

It's like, you know, John, don't you have a trip you're going to take sometime soon? You know what I mean? It's like I got things rolling. Yeah. And then I kind of muddy the waters a little bit. So then I leave and I come back and then they fix it and I come back. And so I think, you know, for me, it's, it's, um, the creativity side is what I love. And then I love to see the success.

And so I'm definitely not a C.O. Yeah. I definitely need an implementer, uh, an integrator. Yeah. Uh, but that's, that's how you probably you and I are both built the same way. Of course. I'm exactly the same. Um, but, uh, you know, I just really like to see, um, I like to put people in the right places. I guess would be my big thing.

So, you know, we're scaling and building a property management business right now. We've had for several years. And we realized that we were like, wow, this business is, it's a great business. But we need to fix it a little bit. And so, you know, a couple years ago, we transitioned and made it better and rebranded and fixed it. So this goes to your theme of like take a business that's already around. Take a traditional type of business. Fix it.

Make it better. Make it yours. Get some nuance to it that can say this is the John Curry style of property management. So what is that look like for this property management group? You know, basically the business is called One Call, right? And so we've realized that a lot of people just don't love to own a house because of the maintenance. Sure. So they like to own. They don't like the maintenance. So traditionally over the past decade, we have, you know,

know, people have hired us to property, to manage their investment properties. They're duplex. They're quadplex. Their commercial building. Collect the rent. Kick the people out when they don't pay. Do all the stuff that owners don't want to do, right? And I said, we said to ourselves, well, every day people are calling us, they need a drywall guy.

I need a painter. I need a plumber. So what we did was we took our business model that was dealing with people who have investment properties. And we said, we can manage your own personal property, your own commercial,

your commercial building that you, that you work in every single day. So we do facilities, maintenance. So it's like you're making one phone call to us. We'll deploy anybody you need. We'll keep all of your records. We know when you bought your refrigerator,

when your hot water heater was purchased, when the warranty expires, all the information in the database. And you get a monthly statement every month or at the end of the year, you just print out something to give to your tax accountant. and basically you love your house again because all the things you don't like about your house,

we handle it with one phone call. Are you talking about a person's personal house? Yeah. Their personal house. Yeah. So we've got a lot of clients that have like bigger homes, you know, they've got multiple systems. Well, I mean, I think when people think property management,

they think rentals. Yeah. And that's when we... I mean, that alone is the nuance that I think you're talking about. Like, you're changing the game to say, like, I'm a client for sure. Right. I hate my appliances.

I hate my gardening. I hate my, I literally have seven people that I got to go call. Right. I had a closet break on me the other day. I got to go call a contractor because I'm not a handyman. I can't figure out how to. I'm like,

oh my God. Yeah. So we're there. We would be able to call this company. And it's called, what's the name is? One call. Yeah.

And I can call and say, hey, my closet is broken. Right. Can someone come fix it? Yeah. And you are the one call I make and the rest is handled. Yeah.

You pay an annual fee? Yeah. to like be a part of this concierge service. Sure. And then we're very, we're very transparent in our pricing. And we're very transparent and, and all the things that we do. Like, you know exactly who's going to show up and when they're going to show up. We actually will take care of the contractor.

So a washer machine breaks. I call you, you go find the right appliance guy. Fridge brakes, same thing. Pool, same thing. You're calling to find, you're finding the people. You're pricing it out. you're figuring out what it's going to look like. And then what, you just call me back and say, hey, you know, to fix that, it's going to be 40 bucks or whatever.

Yeah, so our model is basically we're going to do it quicker and cheaper and more efficiently. And, you know, the only time that ever is going to be different is, you know, you find the guy on the side of the street that's going to, you know, go do it on the side that's not licensed or insured or anything like that. You know, maybe, you know, you can find those type of people. but all these people are vendors that we use all the time. We've got a relationship with. We work well with them. And so that business model is expanding across the United States. We're actually taking that just like we did with what I did with some of my other companies.

Yeah. And realizing that that market is something that everybody needs all over, right? We don't just do it in Florida. I mean, even if you just went and talked to every single listener of the Entrepreneurty N. All we want is someone to fix our problem. Like, I don't want to deal with the closet in my own. Like, I have zero desire or time or bandwidth. Oh, you're pretty good with a drill, though, aren't you?

Hell no. Oh, okay. My running joke is I can't put in a lightball. I'm like, honey, we've got to call the contractor. I can't even, right? Yeah. But the marketplace has got to be huge for this. I mean, you're the total addressable market, Tam, for what people don't know.

It's like every man, like, there are some men that pride themselves. I got it. But nowadays, I feel like there's less men that are like, like the I'll go fix. Yeah, that, that's, uh, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's not, that's not the, that's not the, that's not the, the, the cool thing to do on the weekends anymore, you know, because what happens right now is there's general contractor. Yeah.

And then there's all the stuff that, you know, the general contractor wants to come out and do a remodel and wants to charge you a couple hundred grand. Right. You know, the handyman is kind of going away a little bit. Right. It's hard to find that person. Yeah. Or if you find the person, they don't show up on time.

They smell like smoke. They don't, you know, they don't have any insurance, you know, whatever. So we're filling the gap in between. I don't need a general contractor to fix my closet. You know? I definitely don't. You just need the handyman. I just I need somebody who knows how to get in and out of this situation. I'm not going to get overcharged. I'm not going to wait a week. And that's where one call comes into play. So when you start this business, this is totally you and me, by the way. Like good idea. Let's go execute on that. How big is it going to be? When's this start? Like, are you, you're up and running or do you have one location now? Yeah, we have one location right now. Okay.

We've absolutely perfected it. And it's in where? Somewhere in Florida. Brevard County, Florida. Okay. Yeah. And then what's the next step for this company? We are going to be working on different locations in central Florida.

Yeah. But there's a business opportunity available for anybody in the U.S. that would like to be a part of this business model. So essentially, like a handyman person could, could own a franchise. to some extent. They could. Is that what you're saying? Yeah.

And, you know, there's certain things that are involved in property management, like certain states need, you need real estate license and things of that nature. But, you know, we've got a, we've got a model a package that just says, look, you want to get into business. This is what it is. We'll help you scale it. And then in a couple years, you'll have, you know. So what do you, now, now I'm just curious. So you take on the liability of the licensing and all that kind of stuff in these states for insurance, right?

They get to be a franchise. I'm using the word franchise. I don't know if you're going to franchise or are you going to franchise. It's a business opportunity in the beginning. Then once we start to go to other states, then we're going to franchise. Yeah. So you take on liability. They get to hang their hat on it.

To some extent, there'll be a one call brand. Hey, I own one call. Memphis, Tennessee. I know. Making it up. And they call into one call. And you guys route the phone to John, who actually owns the franchise or whatever may be. And he comes in and fixes.

We take all the pain points out of running a business, the day-to-day stuff, right? So we're a 24-hour business, right? So 2 o'clock in the morning, your main water line breaks. Yeah. We answer the phone. We deploy somebody. So it just depends on the scalability of what that licensee would like. Yeah.

So we'll offer anything from answering your phone calls 24 hours a day to only answering them at night. Interesting. But this is a wild business. It's really cool because it's a residual business. Yeah. where you get reoccurring revenue. And so the traditional real estate model like you and I know is, you know, one and done or fix and flip and get the cash.

But it's like a, it's kind of like an annuity, right? So you're building a business that's got residual income, annual subscriptions, monthly payments, things of that nature. And what happens, it's like anything else. Once you get used to a concierge type service, clients don't want to get rid of it. No. Like they don't want to all of a sudden start tackling.

it on their own, you know? And for the, for the little bit amount of money that it is, is we, we have it scaled based on the size of your property. It's, it's going to be one of those things where once you start and you, and you hire us. Well, it's the same thing. Like, I do not mow my own lawns, right? I do not do my pool cleaning. Like, if you were to tell me now go start doing those type of things, I would be very frustrated, right? Like, that would suck. You were, like, you literally have an audience listening to this right now. That was They're like, how do you hurry up and get into my neck of the woods? Because I need this.

I mean, I'm one of your clients. Like, right now, like, yes, I have these people. But when you own a 3,000 square foot home or 3,000, like, shit goes wrong all the time. All the time. And people don't, like, by the way, and you're a realtor and an investor and this real estate mogul. Like, I actually don't agree with most people should own a home. What's your point of view? Like, I'm vehemently actually in disagreement with it.

You feel that some people cost. You feel that some people should not own a home? Should not. Like 80% of society. I can... I just made up 80 on my ass, but there's a reason why it's that high. I can definitely live

in a house like mine cheaper if I rented it. Thank you. Thank you very much for saying that. Well, the truth. But it's the truth. And people are stuck in your realtor. That's why I asked you.

Like your business revolves. I'm going to get exposed now. I just go, but people can't afford homes. They can't. Like, I'm not even talking about interest rate. Go back to 4% interest rate. They shouldn't buy the fucking home, John, because the roof is going to go,

you know how much it just cost me to replace my roof? 40 grand. Ridiculous. Not that you paid more than you should have. That's what it costs. Yeah. And Johnny, I make 120 grand a year. Where are they going to,

how are they going to deal with that? The average person is, you know, one repair away from destruction of their financial status. 10,000-hour air conditioner. Guess what? You think people plan for it? What's interesting about this is all the properties I own, I don't look at what the mortgage is, the tax, and the insurance. I actually escrow extra money for the fact that I know that this building

is going to need to be repainted every eight years. The air conditioner is going to last 12. The roof is going to last 20. And so here's the problem. If the house costs you $5,000 a month, it costs you $6,000. 700. If you're not putting 6,700 aside, when you need the roof for 40 grand, if you do the 6,700, you'll have the 40 grand, or 80% of it. Enough where you can finance the rest, though. You have it. This is how people mismanage their money, and now we're going on 10. Yeah, I mean, we want to talk about that.

But the reality is like, I love real estate. I will forever begin in, so will you. I just think people need to understand this type of stuff. Like, you're going to be so affordable. like everyone should be joining one call because you need to be able to maintain your home so that in hopes you actually don't ever have to deal with a call like your AC just went out and now you got to go buy it but you can fix your AC every single year and most people don't even realize they're supposed to

right they're supposed to go get it checked almost like an oil change well I didn't tell you our service includes an annual AC check and all your filters you know how people don't even know that They don't even know. They don't know. They don't know. Like, so we come in once a year and we, we check your system for the, you know,

the pressures and all of the things that they need to look for, you know, make sure there's no leaks and all that. And we include the filters. Yeah. I mean, you know how much money you save by just replacing your filter and cleaning your drain line, you know, every, every couple months? Yeah. I mean, so a lot of this stuff is preventative.

And people who buy homes, they do not, they never got a book that said, these are the things they need to do. That's right. You go from an apartment. All of a sudden, you live the American dream, you own this house, and guess what? You got handcuffs on because you don't know what to do. You can't move on your own. That's why you need somebody to help you.

And so where some people have a consultant in their business, when you buy a home or a commercial building or something, we're basically that person for you. And we've vetted. We know what all the prices are. We know what should be repaired or what shouldn't be repaired or how things should be repaired. So we're excited, you know, to give people the opportunity to love their home again. Yeah. But you're right. There is a variety. There's a mass amount of people, I should say, that probably should never buy a home.

Yeah. And if they do, they need to call one call. There you go. That's right. So when are, so a couple things. Contractors could reach out to sooner than later to talk about what it would look like. Yeah. Well, contractors to be either be in our vendor list.

Right. Or they could, you know, want to scale. their business. Yeah. So where should they be reaching out to you? They should be reaching out to One Call M-G-M-G-M-T-com. One-Call-M-G-M-T-T-com. What is your socials for everyone to go?

John Curry, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Spell Curry, J-O-H-N, C-U-R-R-I. That's why I want you. Italian. It is not Steph Curry. No. C-U-R-R-I. Instagram, TikTok, all the socials.

Everything. LinkedIn, everything. And then what would be like some parting words for you to talk to the audience of entrepreneurship, whether it be a newer entrepreneur, someone who's going through it right now and in the mud, whether it be someone who's looking to scale and grow because these are the things you've gone through? What pieces of advice would you give to end that episode? If you're looking at buying an existing business, starting a business, you know, I think that you have to go to an outsider that is not connected with that business, do a survey and have the general public help you with a perspective on what you're about to do. You know, you don't need the buy-in from everybody, but my problem is, it was early in business

as I had started in creating some business models that I thought were really, you know, tangible, and they weren't, you know. The other thing I'll tell you is that there is a major problem that everybody knows in the service industry. I have bought and sold a few companies that were in the service, real estate service industry, you know, electrical companies, window and door companies, things where AI is not going to take away from. Those are the businesses that you need to be looking at. Yeah. I think even though they sometimes are a little harder to run. Those are the ones that are going to withstand the test of time. Yeah. Because like you said in these homes, like, I need electrical,

I need a roof. Yeah. And there's no AI coming. There's not for that stuff. No. And, And the big thing is, is that don't focus on the money side of it. You know, do exactly what you think you want to get involved in and what you love. Yeah. Because it's the age old saying, if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. I'm actually still looking for a job. I've never found one. There you go.

That's right. Ladies and gentlemen, that is John Curry. I am Justin Colby. This has been the entrepreneur DNA. I appreciate your time here, brother. You got it, my man. If this was helpful or you think a couple people need to. you know John Curry, make sure you share it with your friends. We'll see you on the next episode.

Peace.