86. Cancer Survivor, Mount Kilimanjaro Climber, Laundromat Owner with Dan Arnett

Dan Arnett was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and was spared. His experience shifted his perspective and caused him to reassess how he lives the rest of his life and to make changes to maximize the time he has been gifted.

This shift led him on a winding path that has brought him to laundromat ownership and in this episode he tells his story, shares his wisdom, and tells you that you can do it, too!

In this episode, Dan and Jordan discuss:

Dan’s cancer diagnosis and how that changed him
Dan’s post-cancer adventures, including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro multiple times
The path that led Dan to laundromat ownership
Why he claims if he can do it you can do it, too
How he found his laundromat for sale
How he did due diligence on his laundromat
What to ask potential competitor’s customers when doing due diligence
How to rehab the reputation of a laundromat
Small town laundromat ownership
Dealing with inherited negative Google reviews
The self storage industry
Dan’s secret sauce to climbing your own mountains, whatever they might be
Investing in yourself

And a whole lot more!

Watch The Podcast Here

TODAY'S SPONSORS

AtmosphereTV– We’re brought to you today by my friends at AtmosphereTV! Now You may have heard my interview a few months back with Mike Kelly from AtmosphereTV where we talked about what a simple change in content on your TVs can do for your laundromat by getting depressing news stations OFF and something much more fun, entertaining, and family-friendly ON. Since then, Atmosphere has grown to 50+ channels included in their service with everything from Surfing Dogs to Extreme sports, hilarious fails, and jaw-dropping videos from all over the world built specifically for business use. Atmosphere can be used to supplement your cable or you can completely cut your expensive cable bill and use Atmosphere 100% FREE saving thousands a year! Use my code RESOURCE when you check out or click the link or image to have your setup fee waived or contact [email protected] for more information!

Episode Transcript

Read the Transcript Here

hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with the

laundromat resource podcast this is show

86 and i am pumped that you’re here

today because today we have on

self-proclaimed nobody who’s finding

success in this business i would argue

that he is a somebody i think you’ll be

convinced that i am the one who’s right

and not him but dan arnett is joining us

today to talk about how he just took

small steps and by consistently taking

small steps uh man it’s really taken him

to pretty incredible places and he

suggests which i would probably agree

with him on this one that if he can do

it you can do it too so we’re really

going to talk about that a lot today

incredible interview you’re gonna love

it you’re gonna really enjoy it so can’t

wait to share that with you real quick

before we jump into it with dan i just

wanted to

say welcome to all the new members uh i

can’t even name them all anymore

but it’s

super cool to just see how this

community keeps growing and growing all

the interactions on the forums i really

haven’t tried to brainwash you guys to

get over on the forums for a while so

get over there this week especially if

you haven’t been over there for a while

laundromat resource dot com slash forums

you can find that link every link that

we talked about today uh on this episode

in the show notes uh which is at

laundromat resource dot com slash show

or if you’re on youtube down below and

if you’re there on youtube or if you’re

listening on a podcast make sure you

subscribe uh because

man the information that is flowing here

i feel like i can say this because it’s

not coming from me

it’s unparalleled it’s unmatched in this

industry and uh man i know that

personally i’ve been learning a ton over

the last 86 now episodes and hopefully

you have too so make sure you’re

subscribing wherever you’re listening or

watching this

anyways go back to it uh man go over to

the forums laundermatresource.com forums

get over there ask a question answer a

question interact engage especially go

to the new member introductions forms

and if you haven’t introduced yourself

there yet go introduce yourself over

there and if you have or even if you

haven’t

go find someone else and welcome them to

the community it’s a big big deal

uh to

be connecting networking uh

brainstorming with interacting with

other like-minded people and when you’re

doing that consistently

you’re gonna find success faster and

you’re gonna take it further i

promise you that i can tell you that

from experience i can tell you that just

from

a lot of people that i know and i’m sure

that you’ve observed that also so get

out there start interacting with people

the forums are a great place to do that

okay again welcome to everybody who’s

new over there both the pro members and

uh you know the the free community over

there which is also super valuable

welcome to all you guys

cannot uh tell you how exciting it is to

see

um all of that continue to build and

grow a lot of fun feel super humbled and

blessed to be a part of it all right all

right not to get too sappy on you but

there you go all right uh man let’s jump

into it with dan arnett uh because i

i loved this interview this guy has he’s

just got like a a very humble but

passionate take on this industry and i i

mean if there’s a theme that runs

through this thing it’s hey if i can do

it you can do it and it really comes

through

and i don’t know how you’re gonna feel

by the end of this but i felt super jet

super pumped up at the end of this and

felt like i could move mountains uh and

so hopefully you will too all right i’ll

catch you on the back side after i chat

with dan arnett

dan thank you for coming on the show and

i just gotta say i know this is not

coming out uh

today but happy valentine’s day i’m

flattered that you wanted to spend it

with me this morning there’s nowhere

else i’d rather be jordan happy

valentine’s day to you too

ah man the love is already starting i

love it well hey thank you for coming on

the show how are you doing today

i’m i’m doing great thank you for having

me i appreciate the opportunity to share

my story a little bit it’s wonderful uh

i i mean i have like

a little bit of an idea about your story

but i’m really excited to hear the full

extent of it uh but real quick i mean

before we get into who you are and your

story where are you because you are in

like a vest and a beanie and it looks

cold over there

you know i i had to uh admire that

looking in the background you got your

surfing monkey and you’re in a t-shirt

and you know when when i got up this

morning my truck was reading negative

four degrees

northwest pennsylvania north of

pittsburgh about an hour hour and a half

it’s a little bit of a cold spell here

but then wednesday it’ll be 51 degrees

so everybody will be sick with head

colds because of the weather going up

and down like this but it is what it is

i don’t want to tell you this but

yesterday again it’s valentine’s day

today but yesterday it was

92 degrees here

it was it was warm so from negative 4 to

92 that’s a pretty big swing

uh yeah man i don’t envy you i don’t

think i’ve ever been in negative four

degree temperature before

i’m pretty sure you’re not missing much

yeah you’re not missing much at all i

don’t think i could handle i think i

would die instantly all right well uh

stay warm over there and hopefully the

love that’s flowing between us today uh

will keep you warm uh who who are you

dan tell us who you are give us a little

bit about uh your background

uh the easiest quick answer to that is

i’m nobody man i i am just a middle-aged

dude that’s married and work a job and

and i’m really i’m nobody there’s

nothing spectacular and that’s part of

the reason i wanted to come on and share

my story is that if i can kind of muddle

myself my way through this laundry mat

world anybody can do it

um you know i’m married to a wonderful

woman darlene who is

i call her the enabler because any

idea i come up with she’ll think about

it she’s like all right let’s do it

let’s go let’s go for it i need one of

them

we have uh we have three kids that have

grown up 13 16 and 18 and they’re just

they’ve been along for the ride and

you know my son is 13 and he can get on

youtube and he can replace a pump on a

top loader and a belt and all that stuff

and if he’s not careful he’s going to

have a vocation by the time he’s 18 you

know good maybe you can hire some cheap

labor until he gets is that how much

he’s really worth

that’s my open account yeah

all right so you’re a family man i mean

i might i might argue that you are a

somebody but i know what you’re saying i

get what you’re saying there’s you know

nothing particularly special about you

and i’m assuming that’s gonna play a

role

uh you you framing it that way in um

you know in your story here so i mean

what do you what do you do for a living

so i i work in um

kind of conservation agriculture but we

take byproducts and we uh

we make industrial absorbent products

and spill products to clean up um

different environmental spills and a

different division of our company does

like pollinator plants and uh wild stuff

wildflower stuff like that so

that’s that’s the day job the

non-laundromat job

yeah awesome okay so

i mean for me

it begs the question

i mean you’ve got you’ve got this family

going and

uh you have a a career that seems like

it’s doing something pretty good

actually pretty good for our environment

and and you know just a solid job so

i mean talk me through

the journey to get into this crazy

industry of laundromats

i guess maybe it’s unique to us but it’s

probably not so unique for many stories

out there of people looking at

investments in general um

in 2014 i was diagnosed with stage four

hodgkin’s lymphoma which is a type of

cancer

i had an 18 centimeter back mass behind

my breast bone

and i had five centimeters of fluid all

around my heart um it’s in kind of bad

shape you know and uh

you get that news that nobody ever wants

to get and i’m sitting there in an

urgent care of all places and uh feeling

bad for the poor physician’s assistant

just a young girl that had to tell me

this news and then of course like many

other dads my thought goes to my wife

and kids of oh no you know what’s going

on so

fast forwarding the story by the grace

of god and some blessings and some

science you know i went through a year

of chemo and radiation and everything

went into remission um

it just it met a lot of wonderful people

uh shared a lot of my voyage

um just trying to share with people and

be very open about my my battle

but during those years

that year and the year a couple years

after that we were very much living for

today if you would i mean we if we

wanted to go somewhere we went somewhere

we did something because

well no more than today none of us are

guaranteed tomorrow but

it was very poignant at that point of

who knows what’s coming down the pike so

if we want to do something let’s go do

it so we weren’t planning for tomorrow

we were living for today

well and then as time went on you kind

of look at

okay well maybe it’s not as dire and i

was in remission and uh that of course

that’s been wonderful

but in this in my treatment and recovery

i reconnected with an old college

classmate of mine who uh

well i’m pretty sure he’s a cyborg

because of the stuff he’s accomplished

in his life he’s not a member of the

human race at all by any means but

he is a cancer survivor that was the

first cancer survivor to stomach mount

everest

and then went on to do the ventures

grand slam which is all kinds of crazy

stuff but

he has a uh

an association called cancer climber

that every year they take one or a

couple cancer survivors over to tanzania

africa and you climb mount kilimanjaro

which no it’s not the tallest mountain

in the world it’s the tallest

freestanding mountain in the world

and some of us can picture it if we

think hard enough it’s this great big

snow-capped you know mountain over the

plains with zebras and elephants in the

front

and uh

two years after i got my remission news

i found myself on the way to africa to

climb this this mountain

and uh in doing so i raised some money

for

um benevolent and cancer funds around

here as well as for cancer climber

uh continued on a couple years just

sharing my story with pretty much

anybody that would listen uh it was

important for me

for people to hear that

you know not all stories end badly when

you end up in that situation sometimes

it leads to some really cool stuff

um but just had the the need to feel

like i did more so i actually uh

in 2019

went back again and climbed it again

and uh

you know set the goal to raise twice as

much for all the charities that i helped

the first time and i i can’t carry a

flag up with

75 names of cancer patients whether

they’re survivors or lost their battle

to the top and um

just just had

you know just amazing experience it’s

the hardest thing i’ve ever done twice

but i’ve have got to share and i’ve got

feedback with a lot of people who’ve

have caught on to my story and said wow

man that’s pretty cool thanks for thanks

for sharing that

so then that kind of to

let us into the point in our lives where

we’re like

all right let’s uh let’s stop living for

today

let’s start planning for tomorrow let’s

not work our lives away and let’s see

what we can invest in

and uh you know you read about a bunch

of different stuff and it just so

happens on craigslist there is this

laundromat in our town and we’re in a

small town you know this last week i

graduated high school with about 80

people you know just just tiny

and uh there’s the laundromat for sale

now this laundry mat i can remember when

i was 12 years old picking up my

newspapers for my paper route at three

in the morning at the convenience store

right next to the laundromat and there’d

be people in there doing laundry three

in the morning

and that’s always stuck with me is huh

there’s something to that

so i started watching you know podcasts

laundromat resources and reading about

laundry rats and seeing there was just a

ton of opportunity to add value in this

place and

and uh

we ended up you know closing on the

laundry mat right as kova became a thing

our timing was awesome

you know so that’s that’s how we got

into it

[Music]

okay i mean

that first of all that’s a crazy story

and uh man very very happy to hear that

you know you you kind of made it through

that cancer journey i know i mean you

kind of glossed over it a little bit but

i know there’s just a lot of

things that go into that right

emotionally for you for your family for

your friends your community all i mean

it’s a big

big deal that’s a scary piece of news to

get there’s a lot of uncertainty

surrounding that and uh

it’s interesting because it does

when something like that happens it does

give you this perspective shift right

like you’re like

we’re not guaranteed tomorrow so

why do we wait on doing the things that

we want to do right and and so you had

that perspective and it sounds like at

some point you also

said well

yes

and

there still is a tomorrow

hopefully or we at least need to plan on

it right and so there’s that there’s

that balance right that we that we all

have to try to kind of figure out how to

navigate um and i think that having each

of those perspectives is is a super

valuable

you know thing because you’re right

nobody is guaranteed

tomorrow and yet at the same time you

can’t

just leave tomorrow to take care of

itself you got to think a little bit

about tomorrow also

and especially you know especially when

you’ve gone through the experience that

you’ve gone through

and you know

come you know like

had had a realization that you know what

i may not be here tomorrow

but my family might be here tomorrow and

like what you know thinking about it in

that those perspectives too so

man

uh kudos to you number one for

eating cancer and double kudos to you

for climbing kilimanjaro which i have

seen and it is no joke man i have seen

that thing in person and it is a big

mountain

it is a big mountain

and triple kudos to you for climbing it

again uh

second time so man

what a wild journey again

it’s not the tallest one in the world by

any means but the fact that when you’re

on the puddle jumper and you fly in at

about 18 000 feet you’re still about

1300 feet below the summit you know you

can look out the window and you’re

looking up at the mountain and you

not gonna lie you kind of wonder what

you’ve got yourself into you know for

that that next week of your life but no

it was it was cool

yeah well lucky for you you’re a glutton

for punishment you went back and did it

again and then you bought a laundromat

uh okay so you found this laundromat in

craigslist

and

uh i mean what what was it about this

particular laundromat that attracted you

well

you start reading about the industry in

general and you kind of wrap your head

around and it resonated with me

but it’s just again it’s small town

america and i knew that this this store

had been there my entire life it always

had business

there was plenty of room for

value add but it was also the the

logistics of it of you know you hear

depending on people

they try to stick to facilities within

an hour you know half hour hour whatever

people’s numbers are well this is

literally in our town and with three

active kids between my wife and i going

to work and going to school and running

we were going by it all the time and we

just knew that you know that

attention we wouldn’t have to really go

out of our way to give it attention that

it needed and

it was kind of funny as we were doing

our due diligence there was myself my

wife and a couple of our closer friends

that knew we were watching it we’d just

text each other with how many cars were

in the parking lot you know no other

contacts just

three two zero you know just these texts

going back and forth and it was kind of

fun for a while while we were doing that

all right so take us take us back okay

so you

found this thing on craigslist and he

decided hey

we drive by this thing all the time i’m

familiar with it you know for a lot of

years

you know what what was the process like

from i mean did you call was it straight

to the owner was there an agent how did

that all

how did that all work out

so there was a realtor involved and we

kind of reached out to them and they

gave us some information then started

talking to the owner um

and just kind of getting a feel and

doing you know just getting a feel for

it and why did they want out of it and

trying to get an idea the best we could

and we just decided you know we got to a

certain comfort level or like we think

we can make a go of this and obviously

we didn’t think we couldn’t or we

wouldn’t have done it but

you know

knowing what i know now

didn’t do a lot of the important stuff

we should have done but we got fortunate

in the deal and um

just kind of put our our heads down and

we’re stubborn about some stuff and

you know have eaten through the first

couple years so far

good yeah so when was it when did you

buy it

so it would have been early 2020 right

as right as covet hit first quarter of

2020. yeah that’s right okay

all right

a little bit what i mean

so you bought this thing and coveted hit

like what what did that do to the

business

uh you know

[Music]

well i mean within the first week of

having it the the lady who is cleaning

for us uh she had some sicknesses and

was immunocompromised compromising her

lungs and and she kind of said thank you

but we’re out of here uh can’t do this

right now

and uh we’re trying to see you know like

everybody else where where laundry’s

fell in the world if we were essential

and how our locality was gonna enforce

stuff if it did come down and

for a while there we were closing up at

night just to to allow things to calm

down and go in the morning and clean

with

you know things settled and we clean and

then be open for the day and we did that

for a while but now we’re back to 24 7.

and

the most remarkable thing the lesson we

took away was that people still kept

coming through the door

and that will stick with me for a long

time that’s

that’s a good thing about this industry

yeah

yeah yeah essential by

designation but also just essential you

know it’s like yeah you got to do the

laundry kind of no matter what’s going

you can you can hold it off a little

longer but it’s still got to get

still got to get done so yeah

yeah okay so

uh i mean did did you see

kind of numbers go down from what you

thought they were going to be from your

due diligence or from what the previous

owner said or did they stay pretty

relatively flat

what did that look like

they actually jordan we were blessed

that within the first month that we

owned it now

i do have to give the asterisks that

we’re in a a resort town kinda um so we

are seasonality kind of opposite of the

way that i gather the rest of the

industry as we’re where laundries are

busy in the winter and not during the

summer we’re in a summer resort town so

we get a lot more business in the summer

that being said we really don’t know

what we don’t know

because we can look at the previous

owners numbers and

i don’t really know if they mean much to

us with the way things are going um but

in that first month we started to see an

increase and it was really good some of

the the low hanging fruit you know first

thing we did was get some led lighting

up fresh coat of paint um

and

almost instantly that started

translating into to increase revenue

that’s interesting so i mean are there

other

laundromats in your town

there

nope

no there are not so at one point there

were three okay but now there are none

so where do you think this new business

has come from do you think it was people

coming in from out of town uh because i

mean i know a lot of the resort towns

got hit pretty hard during covid when

people weren’t traveling as much and

they weren’t vacationing as much but do

you think it was people coming in out of

town that made it go up or where do you

think that new business was coming from

yeah yeah because it’s a high

for our area it’s a high traffic

location and

as we have you know changed a place and

made improvements and spoken with our

customers and got dialogues going there

are people driving right by going to the

next town over that has four stores you

know some of which are well run nice

stores

um and people even go into the other

town which are the opposite of that

description

just used but they at least knew that if

they put the quarter in the machine

would work

and that’s that was a thing that wasn’t

always the case with ours so you know

it’s just kind of recapturing

recapturing some of the the customers

and the traffic that had been there over

the years that

that were going elsewhere

yeah

yeah well i mean that makes a lot of

sense too and that’s you know i get

asked this a lot about um people who are

looking to buy and maybe we can talk a

little bit about some tips for people in

smaller town areas but i i get asked

that a lot like is there any potential

for

for me to grow my business if i go buy

this laundromat in a small town and i

think that’s one of the major things to

look for

you know are there people

driving out of your town to go do

laundry because the laundromat is not

you know not reliable you know it’s it’s

gambling you put your quarter into the

machine and isn’t going to work it’s not

going to work maybe it’s exciting a

little bit in las vegas but you know in

the laundromat it’s not as exciting

right right and there’s there’s nothing

wrong with uh you know going to the next

town over and taking your laundry basket

and some quarters with you and being a

customer and and being a personable

customer member that talks to the other

ones

you can learn a lot doing that yeah

absolutely absolutely and especially

when you’re doing your due diligence and

whether whether you’re in a small town

going to the next town over or you’re in

a large metro area and going the next

block over you know you can still you

can still do that and it’s worth hearing

you know well let me ask you what do you

did you do that did you go to the next

town over and

put some quarters in and talk to

customers

yeah yeah we actually uh my wife and i

called it our date saturdays um

we spend a wicked amount of time driving

to other laundromats and looking at vend

prices and you know walking through

maybe doing a laundry sometimes just

walking in and buying a candy bar

and looking around and and uh yeah i

guess we’re sick and twisted but that

was an entertaining afternoon to us some

days you know it’s

it’s so yeah yeah we did that i’m i’m

like you’ll do that actually yeah

i’m liking your wife more and more she

sounds pretty awesome

uh oh she is without a doubt yeah so

when you’re when you go when you guys

were going on your dates to these

laundromats and you’re talking to other

customers like what what information are

you trying to get or like what are you

talking to them about what are you

asking them

you know just kind of

sometimes it wouldn’t be direct

questions just kind of leaving

statements to see if they bid on it or

not um one of the constants i’ve found

in life and i think this translates

across many businesses is that

people’s perception is their reality

you know it doesn’t matter what the

facts are how somebody perceives

something

that’s how they perceive it and that’s

their reality

you know so if you have a store in a

certain town and they perceive it as not

a great place it’s unsafe it’s dirty

it’s whatever

that’s their reality until you

prove them different

so you just kind of you know be in the

company of customers and dialogue with

them and

some people it’ll set their radar off if

you ask too many direct questions you

can make just statements and see if they

chime in and it’s been my experience

that people are

usually more than willing to to share

their opinions yeah yeah i’ve said this

before but

you know it’s a lot easier to

rehab

a laundromat than it is to rehab the

reputation of the laundromat because

you’re absolutely right the people’s

perceptions of your laundromat

i mean that’s how your laundry mat is

going to be seen it doesn’t matter so

like for example when i bought my first

laundromat i came in i redid everything

i put in all new machines almost all new

machines

and

but

i kept hearing for like two years like

oh no that that laundromat’s you know

dirty or that laundry mats dangerous or

that laundromats you know xyz

because that’s what it was for a really

long time and it just took a lot longer

than i expected

to rehab

the reputation of the laundromat and you

know relatively speaking it was pretty

quick to rehab the actual laundromat get

new equipment in there throw some paint

on the walls all that stuff

so you’re absolutely right uh any

any uh any tips that you have for i mean

you went in and and did some stuff to

your uh to your laundromat did that help

the reputation of it did you have to do

anything else for that

oh well i mean it just kind of it’s

nothing unique that hasn’t been said on

here on a lot of different articles just

about laundromats of clean safe you know

fresh coat of paint that you up uh touch

up on a regular basis that goes a long

way

um and we’re also in a a situation where

social media can be just a hugely

powerful tool uh went both ways i mean

in a positive or a negative light so we

kind of put a little bit of facebook

work into play and we’re blessed to have

lots of friends that are active and

would recommend us and um

and you also have the the god bless it

the small town touch of hey did you hear

so and so bought the laundromat hey

they’re doing this you know it kind of

people talk there’s not a lot going on

so people talk so you kind of use that

to your advantage i guess

yeah i like that

i like that we don’t get a whole lot of

that small town

talk you know over here in l.a people

are right you know

nobody knows who anybody is nobody knows

their neighbor so

right uh yeah no definitely an advantage

there of the small town well i mean

because i think that’s huge and i think

the social media component is a

big one and is more

utilized now than it has been for sure

in the past but i still think

largely underutilized as uh

you know as a marketing tool for

laundromats and we’re still you know as

an industry we’re still wrapping our

heads around the whole marketing side of

things uh most of us

and so

but man the social media you’re right

has had that power

well i actually had a funny story you

know um trying to to work with google

because

you know the list things for for this

place had some not so nice things to say

about it and it was still important to

us to take over the existing one and

instead of

redo one but you know

we don’t receive mail there we have a

business mailing address and since those

didn’t match up you know they wouldn’t

release the listing to us regardless of

this and i finally ended up on like a

video call

with a fella

and he wanted so badly to see a picture

of the sign

well our sign wasn’t in yet we had there

wasn’t a sign there that matched our

business listing as we had

and so he just wouldn’t release it to us

i mean i’m walking around i’m taking

keys and opening the change machine

opening the office i’m like if this

wasn’t my place how am i doing all this

but without that freaking sign to check

mark his block you know it was no go it

didn’t matter

and it was just exasperating though it

was like 10 minutes of my life that i’m

not getting back of exasperation going

okay fine i’ll just i’ll wait till the

sign comes in and i’ll be in touch you

know just kind of

oh did they eventually

give it to you yeah

yeah yeah after the sign was there i

just

took a picture of the sign there you go

you know i was in both change machines

but that didn’t mean anything yeah i’ve

had in infuriating experiences like in

fact i’m still in

i think i’ve mentioned this on the

podcast before but there’s my laundromat

resource facebook page

is still on facebook and i do not have

access to it because my account got

hacked and i was removed as an admin so

if anybody’s out there and has tried to

book a call with me through facebook and

i ignored you that’s why because i

didn’t get it because facebook won’t

give me the page back and they won’t

shut it down so that i can start a new

one and start over it’s i’ve been

going back and forth like a year with

these guys on it it’s crazy

but yeah i i feel your pain on that

exasperating that’s the only word for it

exasperating i know and yet and yet

they’re they’re still so such powerful

tools right and so right

i guess necessary evil to try to put up

with these guys sometimes that’s it

all right so i mean talk to me let’s go

back to

you know day one you go through your due

diligence you you know it sounds like

you

you had some tough negotiations a little

bit with the with the seller

and you bought the place what was it

like when you first bought your laundry

mat how did you guys feel how you know

what was it like

oh we were we were excited and you know

it goes back and forth from excited to

what did we do too excited to what do we

do and i don’t know how many times it

went through that cycle but

then you kind of learned talking to the

customers and spending time there um

[Music]

you know what ones to take with greens

and what other comments to take with a

grain of salt um

but it was cool we did you know small

town america as we were painting and

doing stuff we’d have friends stop by

and help out or just stop by to see how

things were going or

you know that that part was all good it

was interesting and

you know we’re just really blessed that

things went well especially with the

[ __ ] that was a really uncertain year in

the world basically

and and so we saw numbers just continue

to climb and and uh it was cool it was

we’re obviously we’re still in it and

looking to expand so we’re we’re pretty

happy with the way things went yeah yeah

so i’m curious uh

you know you said

you know summers your busier season and

business was kind of going up

when summer ended

did your numbers still stay above what

you thought they were going to be or did

they come back down to earth or what was

that like

no there wasn’t a crash they just they

tapered off a little bit but i think we

were still seeing the

the reclamation of older customers that

were coming back and giving us a shot

you know

it’s

you know business begets business crowds

to get crowds people were seeing cars

there and seeing some changes and stuff

and they they’d stop in and

it wasn’t

an ordinary for somebody to say hey i

haven’t been here in three years but

we’ve seen people coming and going so we

decided to give it a try and boy we’re

glad we did you know just

things like that so

and then you also learn

i don’t know you you look at stuff and

and stuff that one day seem fine then

you learn a little bit something or you

do a little bit of reading wow

that’s completely backwards what it’s

supposed to be i need to get that

addressed um

an example i use is is

there’s two dryer rooms in the facility

and

they had exhaust fans to try to suck

the

hot air out from behind the dryers that

were blowing out of the building right

these dryers are designed to work in a

gymnasium or on the side of a mountain

you know they want all the free air the

fresh air they can get and here they

were already fighting against a negative

draw right from the go yeah okay the

first thing we need to do is unplug

those fans get along rip them out of the

wall and get louvers in there so yeah

but we didn’t know what we didn’t know

and i’m always excited every day to find

out what else i don’t know that i don’t

know

yeah well right now andrew cunningham is

smiling at you because he is all about

that makeup air so

that’s it

uh yeah and if you have if you know

everybody hasn’t listened to andrews i

mean

his his podcast episode is one of the

one of the most downloaded ones by far

and you know it’s he the guy knows his

stuff he knows the business really well

so i’ll put a link to it in the show

notes uh and up here on youtube they’ll

be down below if you want to uh go

listen or watch

uh andrew’s podcast episode because it’s

a good one but that’s it and i’ll give

him direct props that’s directly from

him in that podcast of listening to that

and the light bulb went off in my head

of huh

well i’m exactly wrong on this that we

need to fix that you know so

yeah yeah flip those fans around and get

the air going in there uh

yeah

yeah i mean that that’s that’s awesome

to hear for one i mean you know

that that’s the whole point of the

podcast is to introduce people like you

to everyone else and things that are

working for you because you know i get

asked a lot about

you know small town laundromats and i’ve

never owned a small town laundromat

right and so having

you know

people with all these various different

experiences and and depths of knowledge

uh it’s just awesome to to hear and to

help us all make our our businesses

better right and run better

uh okay so

you are

you know

your business is going pretty well

and

you know it’s

you’re seeing increase go in and this

was like two years ago basically now

almost like almost exactly two years huh

yep um

and

you’re i mean you’re kind of

you mentioned

you know wanting to expand a little bit

what’s you know what’s on the horizon

for you guys

well so that was 2020 we bought our

first store um

and then we’d set the goal in 21 that we

wanted to continue to invest in

something we wanted another step

we didn’t know what exactly that would

look like um and it turns out in

hindsight

that looks like a self-storage facility

and some residential rental property

doors and some commercial rental

property doors so

21 was a wickedly interesting and fun

year yeah

wow and then you know we set the goal

this year we we want to

add another another laundromat this year

uh kind of circle back around to the

laundry and and

not just to get the check mark but to

add one that makes sense um

and our goal kind of from the beginning

has been the number five we don’t know

why there’s no

no logic to it we just think if we’re

going to do this it makes sense to scale

to at least five and as we were working

on our store

we could really see how that made sense

to once you have the knowledge base to

put it to work elsewhere yeah

yeah uh okay well i mean i know this is

laundromat resource podcasts and all but

can we chat just for a second about

self storage and rentals and all that do

you mind

i will chat about anything you want to

chat about jordan it’s valentine’s day

man i’m here for you

that’s that’s dangerous to say that

because you know who knows where we

could go from there uh but i mean

one of the reasons i’m really interested

in specifically in the self storage

stuff is because it gets

lumped in right self storage car washes

laundromats they get lumped in a lot as

cash flowing businesses as good

businesses the storage industry has

blown up uh like crazy

over the last maybe

five to seven years uh that has just

that market has really boomed

i think personally i think laundromats

are poised to do the exact same thing

uh over the next five to ten years

and i think this this industry is gonna

continue to boom as people

realize what we have over here

but i’m curious about the self storage

how did you get into that side of things

it was actually a very organic thing we

ended up buying it from the fellow we

bought the laundromat off of oh you know

he was he was looking to retire and

travel more and um you know just just

liquidate what he was working with and

he had it on the market for a while and

wasn’t

wasn’t getting anywhere with it

but again especially

after running the laundromat for a year

i became aware of the opportunity to to

add value and that there was room in

there and uh

you know went ahead and took the next

step and then

that led us to learning and looking at

self-storage and and falling in love

with that industry as well and and to

the point where we’re uh we’re

constructing our second facility now

uh it’ll come online this spring here uh

we’ve got offers out on a couple more

too so we’re

we’re liking that too

man you’re going full board so did you

did you decide uh

hey let’s look in the laundry i mean

let’s look into storage facilities

and then find the one that the seller

was selling or did you somehow hear from

the seller that he was selling it how

did that happen

i i had been aware of it

and i i liked the industry

or the concept i had been aware of that

listing

took me a while actually to put two and

two together to realize it was the same

person but then when that did that was

kind of the aha moment of

yeah all right let’s let’s run this down

and see if there’s potential there so

what i love love love about that is that

so i i do

consulting calls all the time i do

so many consulting calls and i hear over

and over and over again like

ah like i’m i’m scared to take that

first step to get in or

you know i

i’m just having trouble getting over the

hump to to get it and or i’m looking for

the best deal and people get super

nitpicky and i think it’s out of fear a

lot of times where they’re just looking

for any little thing to kind of

not go forward right but i tell people

all the time look get your foot in the

door you you know get it get a solid

base hit you know a solid base hit that

first one and number one you might have

an opportunity to create

something more than a base hit out of it

kind of you know

like how you’ve increased your business

um and number two

i have found and maybe i mean it sounds

like you found this personally

but i have found kind of across the

board that

once you kind of get that first thing

under your belt

opportunities tend to kind of come

your way a little more often and

uh and and a little bit better

opportunities kind of come your way and

they can kind of snowball that way so

i’m always trying to encourage people

hey you gotta take action to get that

first one under your belt doesn’t have

to be a home run get a solid base hit to

where you got a solid business

and

and then opportunities are going to come

your way i don’t know that’s me i don’t

know if you found that too

well i i think there’s a couple aspects

to that there’s of course validity to

that and there’s people like yourself

saying that to to those of us that were

out there me two years ago going man i

don’t know can i do this can i

that was part of the huge reason i

wanted to come on and kind of share our

story stories that i am

just nobody special i’m the dude next

door the middle-aged guy you know just

just took the first step

you have people on every week in every

podcast that have forgotten more about

this industry than i will probably ever

know

but i’m kind of muddling my way through

it um

you know i think there’s that but then

there’s also the mindset of uh

you’ll find what you’re looking for

you know if you want to be negative and

find reasons not to invest or not to do

something or not to climb the mountain

or not to go on the trip you’ll find

those reasons if that’s what you’re

looking for that’s what you’ll find

but if you’re looking for opportunity

you’ll find opportunity um now that very

quickly you got to follow up with uh you

can’t what’s the saying you can’t drink

from every cup that you’re offered you

have to be aware of that but

um no i definitely think there’s a

plentiful mindset of if that’s what

you’re looking for that’s that’s what

you’ll find and i challenge myself with

that daily as much as anybody else of

controlling your own mind and then going

from there

yeah i

love that i’m writing down this quote

you’ll find what you’re looking for if

you’re looking for opportunity you’ll

find opportunity i mean

that i i love that and i love the

mountain

uh analogy too i mean because it it is

like climbing a mountain you know

especially getting that first one

you know where there’s just a lot to

overcome to get to that to get to that

summit and

and i like the

i mean so much of this so much of

so much of any progress in life is just

your mindset right and so i i i think

i’ve

i think i used to think that was a you

know a little too

woo-woo a little too like i don’t know

i just i i wasn’t buying it and i think

the more i’ve gone the more important i

think your mindset really is and the

more important i think the more i think

your mindset really

determines to a large extent the path

that you end up taking in life and the

path you end up going in life

and having that that mindset of you know

i’m looking for opportunity right don’t

don’t look for problems look for

opportunities i’m looking for

opportunity and that i mean that’s just

a huge

kind of shift that i’ve gone through

over the years and i think a lot of

people

you know are going through or need to go

through or have gone through kind of

over their

their lives

well and you can like i alluded to you

can go through it daily i mean i still

struggle with with having my head in the

wrong place and looking at the wrong

angle on the same same situation

where you kind of have to shift your

perception and get your head in the

right place and and what was a problem

can become an opportunity to improve or

an opportunity to change something or do

better so

yeah huge i i mean i think you’re dead

you’re dead on on that and you know for

me even i think

i think daily is probably too long of a

horizon for me i’m like man i can go i

was telling my wife this actually like

last week or something i’m like dude

entrepreneurship is so crazy because

literally one minute i could be like

i’ve got this thing licked i am

i’m high on the mountain right and then

literally the next minute for one little

thing could like happen and i’ll

be like oh man i do not know what i’m

doing here and i’m back in the valley

like immediately

so there’s this little voice in the back

of my head that mocks me from time to

simon says who left this guy in charge

you know like

what the heck

so yeah

and i don’t i i use the mountain

comparison i’m not a huge mountain

climber i’m not some world travel

mountain climber it was a a

walk up a hill but it’s

any ass or any

almost anywhere in life i’ve found that

if you look at the whole staircase if

you look at the whole mountain if you

look at whatever

analogy you want to use it can and does

get overwhelming it’s just that first

step nobody’s asking you to step to the

top all at once

just take that first step focus on that

step that’s right in front of you

because you can do that one i guarantee

it you can do that one

yeah that i’m writing that down too i

mean

that it’s that’s such good

uh such good advice and you know i think

i think that whole the journey kind of

perspective

is the perspective you have to keep you

got to keep the long term in mind it’s i

mean it goes right back to the

discussion we had in the in the

beginning like

yes sees seize the day seize the moment

because we’re not guaranteed tomorrow

and yet at the same time you gotta

figure out a way to kind of hold the

the long-term perspective in mind at the

same time right it’s not about

you know being the best right now and i

think a lot of people get

you know

get

frozen in their in their steps they they

can’t take the next step because

they’re afraid to not be

at the end of the journey when they take

that first step but in reality you just

need to take the first step

and you know and then you get there

eventually when you just keep doing one

step after another after another after

another

but it’s a huge that’s a huge

perspective shift i think

that i need to be reminded all the time

because i still struggle with me too

yeah

uh okay i mean man that’s

ah i don’t know i just feel like some

people need to hear that so go back and

rewind that if you need to hear that

again uh because i i think that that is

i i think it’s a big deal and whether

we’re talking about your your investment

journey or you’re talking about

you know dealing with

like a tragedy or or an illness you know

like a cancer right it’s same thing with

cancer right it’s like not

it’s got to do one step at a time

otherwise it’s too much right it’s it’s

too big

and

it’s just a it’s a

it’s just a

huge i don’t know i just i’m like

i’m feeling all the feelings

this is valentine’s day i don’t know i’m

feeling all the feels right and i think

it’s a big deal

i think you’re

you’re spot on with that because when i

was going through treatment you know my

wife and i would often talk to each

other and right from the beginning one

of the agreements we had with each other

was

stay the hell off of google

don’t be looking anything up

and don’t let our minds get away from us

it’s very easy to say it’s very hard to

but it still comes back to that what’s

in front of us this is today let’s work

with today let’s not worry about

tomorrow next week and all that let’s

let’s fight whatever’s in front of us

today

um and it’s the same idea it’s that step

that step in front that’s what you got

to do to get to where you want to be so

yeah

and

i mean go taking it back to the

investing side of things and the

business ownership side of things

like you keep keep saying hey look i’m

nobody just middle-aged guy doing doing

my thing taking my one step at a time

but literally that’s how everybody who’s

quote-unquote a somebody

became that way right like you might

look at yourself and say hey like i’m a

nobody but i guarantee you there’s a lot

of us listening to you right now who are

like you’re nobody who owns a laundromat

a storage facility some residential real

estate doors some commercial real estate

doors you’re building another storage

facility you’re trying to buy another

laundry mat like that’s not sounding

like a nobody

you know to most of us over here and

and yet i i think what you’re trying to

say is

hey i’m not doing anything extraordinary

that other people can’t do i think

that’s what you mean by saying you’re a

nobody

but yeah i’m wrong

no that’s

that’s the take home from this if i can

do it anybody can’t and i haven’t done

anything just yet but

i i’d like to think that if i talk to

myself from two and a half years ago my

my two and a half year younger self be

like wow man you got some stuff going

good work nice hustle

or maybe you’d be like uh that’s scary

stuff i don’t know we’ll see we’ll see

how it ends up

yeah

well and that’s part of it too um

[Music]

you know as

i think a big part of the reason

why

we have to have that one step at a time

mentality is because

i mean i would guess i i know this for

me personally but i would guess you know

for you the you of two three years ago

probably wouldn’t be as equipped to

handle your current

situat your car your current load your

current investment load you know as

you’re now you is because it’s taken all

of those

steps to become the person who can

who can manage what you’re managing

right now and who can think the way that

you’re thinking right now and who can

think okay i’m gonna add another

laundromat or two and i’m gonna get to

five and i’m gonna you know have however

many storage units and residential you

doors and commercial doors right and

that’s a big part of

why i think it’s important to have that

step-by-step mentality is because

not not only do you have to go step by

step in order to get the things you want

to get

but you have to go step by step to

become the person you need to become

in order

to do the things you want to do

if that makes sense that’s a great point

that makes a lot of sense yeah that

makes a ton of sense that’s a wonderful

point

yeah

okay uh man this this has been uh

awesome to hear your story and you know

so i

we have a section called down to

business

and i want to hear a little bit about

your

business i want to talk a little bit

about the details of your laundromat

business in particular and maybe we can

you know throw in a little bit about

your storage uh stuff too because that’s

a little bit interesting and

semi-related too but remind us again

where are you located

we’re in northwest pennsylvania i say

balmy northwest pennsylvania i think

it’s about seven degrees out right now

we’re getting getting warmer out there

oh i don’t think i really even

[Music]

i have like nothing but like sympathy

for your whole area right now like i

just don’t know how you even survive

uh over there and i also i’m i’m gonna

be very genuine right now

i’m not sure i know what balmy even

means

warm warm and sunny warm and sunny oh no

i don’t think we use that word here

because i think that’s just normal

uh weather

well my wife and i often joke we say why

do we live where the air hurts our face

the air hurts our face why do we live

here and her answer is snakes and

spiders that’s why we live where the air

hurts our face okay yeah

okay

okay i mean you do you you got to make

trade-offs you got to make trade-offs

although we don’t have a whole lot of

snakes and spiders around here either so

i’m just saying but it is costly

you got to pay for it one way or another

whether it’s pain on your face or

snakes and spiders or just straight out

of your pocketbook you got to pay so

pick your poison

all right so you’re over there freezing

freezing your head off and uh

so we’re i mean we already talked about

normally i like to ask how many

laundry mats real estate investment

things you have but i mean we kind of

already mentioned that you got self

storage you got laundromats you got

residential units commercial units

uh you know pretty much

your you own half of pennsylvania is

what i’m gathering

[Music]

uh okay is really big state it is big

and you’ve been in the business since

early 2020s we already talked about that

so talk to us what does it cost to do

laundry in a

small town in pennsylvania

our event prices i mean we basically the

the first number matches the capacity so

our our 20 pounders are 275 you know 30

pounders or 375

uh the whole way up through our our

newly installed 80 pound machine which i

refer to that as the uh the bachelor

laundry special

because there’s an 80 pound washer and

80 pound dryer right behind it so

everything can go in one turn and put it

in the other and and just be done

uh great so that’s that’s where we’re at

with that we are

we’re in the middle of the pack for our

county um you know we’re above some of

the more rural stores than us and uh

behind some of the little bit uh bigger

town stores so we’re kind of in the

middle of the pack but

that’s where we are yeah

out of curiosity i mean

right now is just this

unique time

again i mean

not neces well i mean i guess we still

have some of the pandemic stuff going on

but

kind of some of the fallout i think of

and

it’s not just pandemic fallout but like

we’ve got like rising inflation rising i

mean bills are going up you know all

this stuff is happening are you

adjusting prices at all during this time

or if prices pretty much stayed

even for you um

no we well we adjusted they were not

that when we bought the place and really

to to

use the overused phrase we bought a

zombie

i mean it had not been reinvested in for

years and we made all kinds of

improvements

still have more that we want to make

um you know we air conditioned it for

the first time ever which i know you’re

thinking it’s seven degrees out then why

are you worried about air conditioning

but we have this awesome thing in the

summer called humidity that is just oh

you know it in the summer here it can be

93 degrees and 100 humidity and that’s

just ignorant hot

and so we uh you know we air condition

we put we replaced about two-thirds of

the equipment in it

and so we did all these things and and

and dave men’s words were playing in my

head the whole time of if you don’t

value your stuff nobody else is going to

and so we’re adding a ton of value for

our customers and we adjusted the prices

accordingly and

we have a couple more improvements here

in mind that over the next year will be

made and uh

you know

we’ll continue to adjust one of the

things we did and my wife and i went

back and forth on this

um we just added some tvs and put

atmosphere tv

hey all right

and uh you know so far it’s it’s

received really good feedback with all

but one person that keeps unplugging the

the one tv

you know just kind of

whatever but you know it it’s for the

most part we’re trying to add value that

customers can see and experience and

then keep our prices adjusted according

yeah i i think that’s wise i think

that’s smart and you know as you’re

adding value just you know charge that

value and i love that

as for the the customer that keeps um

there’s always that customer isn’t there

i mean yeah

yes

yeah

hey at least they’re feeling comfortable

enough to make themselves at home there

i guess

i i kind of look on the bright side of

if somebody is that comfortable then

maybe they’re going to tell somebody to

pick up their dryer sheet or not to

trash something you know if they if they

feel that strongly tied to the place

then maybe they’re watching it too maybe

there’s a silver lining there so that’s

right trying to

look on the positive that’s right and

those dryer sheets man i feel like

as soon as one hits the ground at least

in my unattended laundromat as soon as

one dryer sheet hits the ground it’s

like a free-for-all in there there’s

like chicken bones getting thrown

everywhere and diapers and i’m like i

don’t even know where this came from

like license plates i’m like what

turned into a junkyard or a door

whatever

we joke that used dryer sheets are the

heaviest substance on the planet yeah

nobody can pick them up they’ve got to

be the heaviest thing in the world

yeah it’s yeah i that’s that’s really

funny i can’t tell you how many nights

i’ve laid in bed thinking

how do i create some sort of vacuum

system or something that’ll just suck

them up because

gosh man i cannot tell you how many of

those things i pick up it’s gonna

i’m gonna have to like hire a

chiropractor for my back just bending

over to pick those things up and now i

love what you said the heaviest that’s

really funny

i i view them though same way i view

dirty floors i would rather have a

laundromat that gets dirty and has has

used sheets everywhere because it means

people are coming through the door

yeah

i love that as twisted as that sounds i

know

no i mean i like i think you’re right

man i mean obviously we prefer a lot of

people use it and also you know take

care of the place but you know barring

that as because obviously that’s not a

possibility because we as humans are not

capable of that i don’t think but you

know it’s better to have a well-used

laundromat that gets a little dirty than

a [ __ ] and spin that’s not getting used

for sure

um and also i think uh somebody should

make a t-shirt that has a dryer sheet on

it that says the heaviest substance

known to man

there’s only like me and you and four

other people in the population that

would get that though you know that

right that’s pretty limited market i

think i think my entire audience would

understand that

because we all deal with that that’s

pretty funny

maybe maybe i’ll uh

order some and do a giveaway or

something because that’d be pretty funny

there you go there you go uh okay

how about i mean can we talk about turns

per day do you mind talking about that

yeah again we’re seasonal we’re in a

resort town so some points of the year

were were just under sub three like two

eight two nine uh for the majority of

the year what we’ve seen we’re right

around

3.3 3.4 if you average it across your

machines

you know god love the the couple top

loaders we keep around that people are

just clinging to like their lifeblood

you know those those top loaders will

have

some weeks they’ll average five turns

yeah you know i just can’t get away from

them that people just they’re

comfortable with them so they cleaned

you how much you charge for those top

loaders

well they’re at

250 right now 250.

yeah well there is one it’s kind of a

it’s kind of a fun game there’s one that

i bought used the previous owner had

programmed on tuesdays was their slow

day

so this one machine will roll back on

tuesday nights to a buck 75

and there’s like three people in our

whole store that have figured that out

so that one machine on tuesday nights is

busy you know and i i kind of leave that

as the easter egg for people to find i

don’t advertise it i just leave it there

and they of course aren’t going to tell

other people so yeah that’s pretty funny

it’s i love little tidbits like that i

think that’s fun i agree i think that’s

hilarious and i think it’s fun for

customers too when they kind of figure

it out and

you know especially if they think

they’re pulling the wool over your eyes

and it’s

pretty fun

uh yeah i mean that sounds that sounds

right in there where you know where you

should be doing that 2.8 to 3.3 kind of

turns one of the things that i was uh

do i was trying to figure out because

like you said people love those top

loaders and cling to them and one of my

laundry mats i don’t have them anymore

my other one i still have some in there

and

like how do i

how do i get people

to stop using these things i’d rather

have like nothing than these you know

these washers

and uh and so i mean i just kind of kept

you know every few months just raised

the price a little bit more a little bit

more people kept paying and then i hit

like a threshold

where they were about the same as those

20 pounders or maybe i can’t remember if

it was around then or maybe like a

quarter more than the 20 pounders right

and people started

sort of filing to those 20-pounders all

of a sudden i started seeing my 20 pound

turns going

up and i’m like okay this is i’m i’ve i

found the spot now where people can

still use those those top loaders

but i’d rather him use the 20 pounders

because it’s gonna get their clothes

cleaner for one and it’s gonna cost me a

lot less money for them to use it for

two uh and it’s gonna get done faster

for three so it’s like a win-win-win all

the way around so that was one of the

things that i did that ended up working

uh but i’ve had and and i don’t think at

least that this store will ever be able

to completely get away from them because

we have you know people are set in their

ways humans are creatures of habits and

i’ve had a couple of the older fellas

the older bachelors say you know if you

don’t have these anymore we’re going to

drive the the 10 miles to the next door

that yes

they’ve just laid it right out there

you can get rid of them if you want to

but you’ll lose us

yeah

that’s good feedback to have yeah at

least you can make your decision you

know based on actual information you

know whether you keep them or let them

uh are you

uh are you attended partially attended

unattended

just just unattended um

my wife and i and even our oldest

daughter if we go by we’ll stop in and

pick up dryer sheets and straighten up

and

um you know the cleaning staff that we

has takes uh that we have

they take a pretty good interest in it

and they live right up the road so

they’ll stop by if they see something i

mean there’s constantly people in and

out but no we’re not attended we’re

unattended yeah you’re and you’re

unattended 24 7 right

correct yeah

yeah i tried that for a little bit

uh and it was

it was rough for me i had like a whole

like homeless encampment moving in and i

really had to stay on top of it i was

setting my alarm a few times in the

middle of the night to

check the cameras on my phone and then

i’d be like ah i gotta go deal with this

and

eventually i was like it’s not worth my

hassle anymore

yeah well i i think that’s part where

we’re blessed to have this for lack of a

better term call it a heritage store

that’s been that way you know forever

and we’re in small town america where we

don’t have a whole lot of that

population um

you know so so as long as it’s not an

issue we’ll just keep at it and it seems

to be good it amazes me looking on the

camera how many people do laundry at 4

30 in the morning it’s amazing to me

yeah well that’s that’s what made the

decision hard for me to to not do it is

there’s just there’s a lot of people who

you know

do laundry in the middle of the night

for whatever reason

uh yeah

you know

uh so are you coin coin store card store

hybrid store

coin coin

and i i mean if you had to

take an average week

about how many hours would you say that

you’re putting into this laundromat

what’s uh you talk about t-shirts being

made i think dave should have shirts

made to say it depends right hashtag it

depends uh

you know if there’s no projects going on

maybe we’re looking at

5 10 15 hours a week depending on what’s

going on what the bookkeeping is in the

time of year

but if there’s projects going on new

machinery or we’re doing something you

know it’s not unreal to be 35 or 40

hours a week on top of on top of my day

job my real job yeah how are you it all

depends it depends yeah how do you

manage that i mean if even even at 10 or

15 hours a week on top of your day job

and i know you have you know your

storage facility and you got you know

other rental units and stuff how are you

managing all this

just kind of uh stay after it i guess um

the next book i’m finishing up one book

now that that’s about business and my

next book will be on time management so

if anybody wants to shoot me a book or

recommend recommended recommendation on

time management i’d love to have it

because i i know i can get better at

that um

but yeah it’s just just staying after it

and then some days i do way better than

other days and you know kind of laugh at

it say well today wasn’t great we’ll get

it tomorrow you know can always improve

yeah yeah that’s awesome well i mean i

love the

i love what you’re doing i love that

you’re getting it all done and i think

we all can use

you know

improve our time management always right

one of one of my favorite ones uh on

that

i guess it

it is on that it’s on i guess

productivity but the 80 20 principle was

a really good one

that i really liked

uh i’m trying to think if i

me i know i’ve read other ones i don’t

know if i think of any more i’ll shoot

them your way too

sure

[Music]

yeah and i’ll put a link to that book 80

20 principle in case anybody wants to

check it out

in the show notes or uh description on

youtube

uh awesome awesome to hear about your

business and and what it’s doing

uh we have another section called

secret sauce listen up it’s the secret

sauce

[Music]

and secret sauce is hey what’s something

that you feel like is working for you in

your business that other owners can

implement to help them improve their

business

um i i think the biggest thing is is to

to do one thing and i’ve heard that from

a number of people in a number of

different areas but just getting better

each day and doing one thing and it

doesn’t have to be a huge thing but but

figure out which aspects need addressed

and what are priorities and do one small

thing that you’re progressing in that

area every day consistently um

you’re not going to make or break your

businesses in one day you’re going to

make or break your efforts by

paying attention to consistently putting

effort into it and i i think that’s the

biggest thing we can all keep in mind is

just consistent

consistent action

yeah i love that

uh coming from the guy with laundromats

and commercial real estate and

residential real estate and now i’m just

kidding

i’m giving you a hard time no but i mean

i i i love that and again

i mean it’s kind of the theme you know

the the mountain climbing theme of this

whole episode right is that

one step of the j it’s about the journey

right one step at a time you can’t start

at the bottom of a mountain and we’re

not superman we can’t you know leap the

mountain in a single bound right we got

to take the one step at a time we can’t

expect to be exactly where we want to be

right away we gotta you know get better

every day and

just kind of enjoy the journey as we’re

going

so i mean it’s very fitting for

this episode great advice

uh we have another section called pro

tips

[Music]

and pro tips is for the newbies who you

were you know a little over two years

ago and you know maybe looking to buy

your first laundromat

what do you think somebody who’s looking

to buy their first laundromat needs to

know

uh to before they get into this business

only they can answer that for themselves

what they need to know

but they need to know whatever they need

to know that makes them comfortable

taking that first step

uh you can spend

your life researching it you can spend

10 years but whatever that tidbit is it

makes you take that first step on the

top of to the top of the staircase to

the top of the mountain and you know

walt disney was a visionary and i often

think of his quota of the best way to

get started is to quit talking and begin

doing

and and that’s just you know

whatever you need to know to take that

first action yeah

yeah i i mean

so good i it’s

again like i’ve done so many consulting

calls where people are just trying to

take that first step right and there’s a

lot of fear to overcome

you know in that like i i don’t know can

i ask you about this when when you were

climbing when you’re getting ready to

climb kilimanjaro the first time

i mean

how did you make that decision and

decide okay i’m gonna climb this giant

mountain on the other side of the world

uh and

you know i’ve never done it before like

what

what gave you

like what did you do in that scenario to

give you the the courage to say okay i’m

gonna take the first step and and go for

it um

well whatever

whatever school you want to buy into

whether you’re you’re christian

religious whatever but i i really have a

strong feeling that the lord or the

universe or whatever you want to refer

to it as

i’m still here for a reason i was left

here for a reason

and i feel that that opportunity had

been put in my path for a reason of

you know

i i don’t think there’s anything

spectacular about me that i was left

here but maybe

can encourage somebody or or you know

help somebody else along the way that’s

what it’s really all about

and uh

you know so that that thought of well

you’re left here dan and this

opportunity is in front of

you whether you’re scared or not you

need to do this you need to do it for

you don’t know why but you need to do it

yeah sorry to get a little emotional and

out left field but that’s that’s

that’s why

yeah no i mean i think that’s

in you know i mean for you you had this

acute

experience right where

you know you you ran in to something

that could have taken your life right

and and you were spared and like you

said you know for whatever reason you’re

spared and you had opportunity put in

front of you and not everybody has that

that you know acute experience like that

uh however

i mean

we’re we’re all here you know for a

reason we’re we’ve all been spared this

morning when we woke up you know for a

reason

and uh you know just because

you know death wasn’t

you know knocking on our door

conspicuously

like hey

we’re still spared you know every single

morning we get to wake up and you know

you can spend it

being afraid or

you can spend it saying okay i’m here

you know for a reason so what am i gonna

do today to make it count for myself but

what also am i gonna make you know how

how else am i gonna make it count for

the people around me the other people in

my life or the other people i you know

might be able to influence and i like

having

that outside kind of perspective and

that outside motivation too

you know in terms of

you know the decisions that you make and

the ways that you want to spend your

life and that was a big part of why i

got into this industry too is because

you know i had a family and i had young

kids and i wanted to try to free up some

time for myself to be able to spend time

with my young kids and

all that right and having that outside

motivation

can help overcome some of that fear too

uh we have a last section called

recommended

resources and you know i’m do you have

any resources that you would recommend

for people to help them either you know

their business journey or their personal

growth journey or

uh or something along those lines

well well sure and you know we can go

with the obvious ones laundromat

resources and you and i had talked a

little bit earlier where i feel like we

kind of

parts of our our

journeys or our past have grown up

together a little bit um

but then you have dave menzies putting

out a ton of information there’s a ton

of information out there on youtube and

stuff and that that doesn’t always

necessarily mean it’s right but

more so than specific resources i would

encourage people

not to to scoff at the idea of investing

in themselves

you know we’ll look at our facilities

and we’ll say oh i’ll spend ten thousand

dollars on a new washer i’ll spend three

grand on a new change machine or you

know new parking lots twenty thousand

dollars what uh whatever you know we see

that as investments

but then circles around to well okay um

i’m not going to take this management

course for five hundred dollars because

that’s a lot of money well no go ahead

and invest in yourself because if you’re

not invested in yourself what are you

really doing with the rest of it um

so you know i i challenge people to look

at these different things and go ahead

and invest in themselves and grow

themselves

just because something is free doesn’t

mean it’s worthless just because

something’s

you know expensive doesn’t mean it’s

worth full but you got to make those

calls on your own and

not automatically say well that’s too

expensive i’m not going to do that

um you know you put yourself in the

right room with the right people and and

if that leads to a conversation that

totally changes your trajectory what’s

that worth was that conference too

expensive then you know it just kind of

that that’s the way i look at it there’s

just so much wisdom coming out of this

episode and like this

for me this will really like puncture

i’m

you laugh but i’m serious so just you’ve

got a lot of wisdom you know coming out

of here and i appreciate sharing it with

us but this one kind of punctuates

it for me because you know i think it’s

hard like

and you know to be fair

it’s tough right like you said it’s

tough to quantify how much it’s worth

getting an idea from being in the right

room with the right people and it

changing the trajectory of your life

it’s hard to quantify that whereas you

can say well i go spend 10 grand on a

machine it’s going to do this many turns

i’m going to recoup my investment this

amount of time and then i’m going to be

profiting this much

you know or whatever so that’s a little

more concrete whereas when you’re

investing in yourself

number one sometimes it’s hard to

quantify

how much that’s worth and number two

the the timeline is ambiguous a lot of

times like you know sometimes you got to

read

60 books a year for you know business

books a year for five straight years

before you can look back and be like

holy cow like i have come a long way in

my business journey or whatever and you

didn’t really realize it right

the timeline can be a little bit

ambiguous

however

i love what you’re saying because it’s

dead on right you got to invest in

yourself in your own growth in your own

learning and whether that’s going to a

conference buying a course

you know

getting in the room however you can with

people who are doing what you want to be

doing

uh you know either physically in the

room or digitally

uh in the room

uh and

and

man there’s just like you said you can’t

you can’t put a price on that and like

and also like you said you know not

everything is created equal and not

everything is

priced according to its value so you do

have to kind of judge that however

and

investing in yourself it makes me think

of uh

i i think how to win friends and

influence people

uh no

seven seven habits of highly effective

people

and you know that whole sharpen the

sword right sharpen the sword

and

you know basically what he’s saying in

there is you’ve got to make yourself

better and going back to what we’re

talking about earlier

you’ve got to invest in becoming the

kind of person who can

do the kinds of things that you want to

do with your life right

and

i’m i’m i’m like rambling a lot right

now but i’m like so

excited about what you just said and

like i’m just so on board with what you

just said

uh that i’m gonna stop and if you you

want to comment on something i’m going

to stop rambling

yeah no it’s just it is and it’s

actually a a uh

a lesson that i’ve carried with me and

one of the

members of the first team the first time

we were in africa and i won’t name names

but the fella is a very successful fella

in his own uh in his own right in his

own career

yeah as you’re trudging up the hill and

you’ve got hours and hours and a week

that you’re trudging up this mountain

your conversation goes on many different

topics and one of the things that he

said that always stuck with me is very

poignant of

he doesn’t invest in the market he

doesn’t invest in people that are

running businesses that he may never

meet or will never meet he says that’s

ludicrous he says i’m doing something i

believe in i’m going to invest in myself

because i can control the destiny with

that to give my money that i’ve worked

for and give it to somebody else to

invest

i’m not doing it

it’s just always not that you know there

aren’t good and sound investments for

people that aren’t wired the right way

or whatever and and diversity is good

all those things that everybody will

talk about but

at the core of that is

yeah man take part of your money and put

it into yourself because because

you’re doing what you’re doing so why

wouldn’t you invest in it

yeah i think

yeah i i love that and i i’m like 100 on

that uh on that bandwagon too where

you know i don’t know i’ve said this

about uh like the for example the

laundromat millionaire conference that’s

coming up in beginning march if you’re

not coming you should be there uh i

think dan and i will both be there so

come hang out with us game on uh i can’t

wait

me too and you know i i think i made

this comment a couple weeks ago on the

on the podcast but

you know i i fully intend on that one

conference being worth

six figures at least to me

just from being in the room with

some of those people and some of the

opportunities i know that that’s going

to present

to not just me but you know to other

people as well hopefully

and so

you know

i i

you know

again it can be it can sometimes it can

feel if you have the wrong mindset it

can feel like you’re just kind of

dumping money

into

something that you’re not sure if you’re

going to get a return on or not but

it’s all part of the process of becoming

who you need to be

to do some of the big things that you

want to do in life if you want to do big

things in life so

love that

dan this has been incredible i really

appreciate you coming on sharing a lot

of your wisdom and actually kind of even

more important than that sharing your

story uh because you know the courage

that you’ve had to go through what

you’ve had to go through

and to get to the point where you’re at

now

um is not

common it it is extraordinary and it’s

not extraordinary because you know

you’re innately necessarily an

extraordinary person but

you’ve been able to do extraordinary

things by doing

things that any of us can do

but consistently and over time and with

diligence

and i mean extraordinary results

genuinely genuinely so don’t put

yourself down too much uh because it is

i mean

it’s it’s extraordinary

uh last question i have for you

is if anybody’s interested in chatting

with you about your journey

uh you know in life or in laundromats

what’s the best way that they can get a

hold of you

um my email is probably the most

dependable it’s uh

lads n l and l-a-d-d-s-e-n-t

at yahoo.com

the shoot me an email oftentimes phone

calls

can fall by the wayside or text or

whatever but yeah email i’ll circle back

around too so that’s the best way yeah

perfect

well again this has been incredible

thank you so much for spending

valentine’s day with me this has been

very romantic i feel like i should do

the heart thing that my daughters do you

know

there you go

i appreciate you having me on jordan

thank you so much yeah yeah and likewise

and cannot wait to uh hear about we’re i

mean we’re gonna have to do an update

episode down the line here when you get

to your five laundromat mark and who

knows what else you’ll have by then i

don’t know you might own mount

kilimanjaro by then who knows could be

crazy so no

all right thank you all right enjoy your

day

youtube jordan thanks

all right i hope you’re pumped up about

just life right now and you are feeling

like man i can move mountains i can

do anything and you know it’s kind of

funny i didn’t actually do that on

purpose but you know his illustration

about climbing you know climbing a

mountain one step at a time i mean

it’s

ah dude it’s so fitting and you know

sometimes i need to step back and remind

myself sort of the atomic habits kind of

mentality keep doing the small things

consistently over and over and over

listening to an audiobook right now

called the ultimate sales machine

and his i think the way he puts it is

pig-headed determination right just to

continue to do the things you know you

need to do to find success

and uh and most of us don’t ever achieve

our goals because we don’t have that

pig-headed determination that

determination just to take one step at a

time to climb that big old mountain uh

so i that’s my kind of big takeaway from

today i don’t know what yours is but go

over to the forums share what your

takeaway is from this episode and

interact with other people about

takeaways because you know i say this

all the time but it’s our actions it’s

the actual steps

that help us climb to the top of the

mountain it’s not

learning about

mountain climbing it’s not buying the

gear it’s not any of that stuff

listening to the podcast only learning

watching videos reading blog posts

reading books that stuff is all great

and important stuff but the thing that

actually gets you to the top of the

mountain is actually taking

the steps so pick one step to take this

week

and let’s get you on your way to

climbing your mountain uh my other

takeaway which i thought was hilarious i

just had to like bring this back because

i thought it was so funny was when he

said dryer sheets have got to be the

heaviest thing known to man uh i just

thought that was so funny because it’s

so true i just you know especially my

unattended automatic but even my

attended one uh you walk in and it’s

people can’t pick those things up so

anyways uh huge thanks to dan hopefully

you guys are jazzed and pumped up go

conquer the world this week and

hopefully i will see some of you guys at

the laundromat millionaire conference uh

this upcoming week all right all right

see you guys next week peace

[Music]

Links from the Show

Become a Laundromat Pro & Join the Pro Community!

Unlock the secrets of laundromat success! Join our Pro Community now to access expert insights, exclusive resources, a vibrant community, and more.

Become a Laundromat Pro and Join the Pro Community!

Unlock the secrets of laundromat success! Join our Pro Community now to access expert insights, exclusive resources, a vibrant community, and more. Elevate your laundromat journey today!