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
Atmosphere Certified Reseller

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

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
a
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
86
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
uh
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
so
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
um
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
so
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
um
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
so
uh okay so you found this laundromat in
craigslist
and
uh i mean what what was it about this
particular laundromat that attracted you
um
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
um
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
um
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
on
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
um
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
is
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
so
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
like
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
um
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
uh
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
to
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
um
you know that that part was all good it
was interesting and
um
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
um
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
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
um
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
um
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
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
do
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
uh
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
uh
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
uh
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
uh
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
uh
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
uh
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
so
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
um
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
so
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
go
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
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
um
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
uh
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
i
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
uh
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
um
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
uh
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
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
um
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
like
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
like
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]

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!