71. From Canada to the United States, Richard's Journey With International Entrepreneurship

Episode 71: Expanding Horizons - From Canada to International Business.

David Moskowitz sits down with Richard Di Biase to discuss his entrepreneurial journey with Restoration 1 in Orlando, Florida. This episode explores the challenges and triumphs of establishing a business in the United States, offering insights for those looking to venture beyond Canada's borders.

Key topics include:

• Richard's rollercoaster ride in setting up a U.S.-based franchise
• Navigating the complexities of starting a business as an investor
• The crucial role of relationship-building in business growth
• Strategic investments in equipment and office spaces
• The entrepreneurial journey metaphor: venturing into dark shadows with a flashlight

Listeners will gain valuable insights on mentorship, market research, and the importance of a clear strategy. This episode is packed with lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs seeking bold opportunities in the United States.

Join David and Richard as they uncover the realities of international business expansion and the resilience required to succeed in a new market.

Chapters

• 0:00 Making Waves Mindset Show Inspiration
• 9:22 Reviving the Restoration Business Venture
• 18:20 Deciding to Leave
• 28:39 Navigating Challenges in Florida Business
• 33:19 Building Relationships for Business Growth
• 37:21 Navigating Entrepreneurial Challenges
• 49:30 Connecting With Dave for Business Growth"

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:00

This is the Making Waves Mindset Show with your hosts, richard DiBiase and Dave Moskowitz, learn from our journey, as we share the ups and downs of being your own boss.

Speaker 1: 0:15

People in policing have limited beliefs. They're trapped in this fish tank. One of the biggest things was looking at a business in the US, and that's where we are. I'm down in beautiful Orlando, florida.

Speaker 2: 0:29

A plan and then act on it. Those have been three valuable things that I've installed into my staff that work within our businesses and it is coming back tenfold.

Speaker 1: 0:42

So you're telling me about this fancy pick, Dave, you saw on a cigar.

Speaker 2: 0:45

Cigar. They call them Cigar Dagger. I found them on Instagram and it's these. I've never used one before, but according to my resident expert, when you get down to the nib, the nib Is it the nib?

Speaker 1: 1:03

I don't know, you know, I don't know what you would call it. Could we call it the nib?

Speaker 2: 1:04

I don't know I, you know, I don't know what you would call it. Could we call it the nipple, could it? Could it be the the end of your cigar, the end of the cigar that's too small to hold in your fingers, at least my sausage fingers?

Speaker 1: 1:18

yeah, we're gonna burn our sausage fingers right.

Speaker 2: 1:20

So they have this dagger that goes through, but but they call it I don't know, I guess it's a, it's a spear spear dagger. Anyways, this company called Cigar Dagger makes these spears, but they're incredible looking.

Speaker 1: 1:37

Really Look at the artwork on there. Yeah the artwork on that. You could have the poor man's version Dave a toothpick Right. Right, you could have the poor man's version Dave a toothpick, right. I see a lot of Latin people do that. They use a toothpick, or they have a fancy device like that built into a torch and it's like all in one cigar aficionado, lighter hole puncher, guillotine cutter, V cutter, jeez.

Speaker 2: 2:00

All in one.

Speaker 1: 2:01

All in one, take it out and it's no bigger than a snickers bar. You know, because you got butane, you got everything all built into this thing and you just that's what they use. But I find when you get to the nib, yeah or the nipple the yeah, the cigars they start to.

Speaker 1: 2:18

Some will get the um, a resin, which is where you get this weird tarry stuff on the back. Normally when that happens, man, the cigar is done. There's, it's just I can't remember what it's attributed to, but it's kind of like a bad roll or it's too hard pressed, something's happened and and it gets all over your hands, your mouth. It stains. But when you get to the end it's very difficult. The cigar really changes and depending on who you ask I've looked at some content on this the official people might say a cigar is really meant to be burned halfway and if you kind of notice, most cigars kind of die halfway. But some people like me, we will try to push it beyond and maintain a consistent burn. So we're not relighting Because I notice if you relight the cigar it changes the taste, right, right. So there's a way.

Speaker 1: 3:05

I I've been smoking cigars for a while and I actually learned this from david off david off, david off cigars. He actually has an incredible video on this and he talks about lighting. I wish I had my cigars out. I'd be having one right now. But he lights the cigar before he even takes his first puff. He goes. You want to have that virgin puff when the flame and that orange glow is on the end of the cigar. You get a lot of people who just take it, put it up and start. You're changing all the tastes and the experiences. So ever since I've been doing it his way wow, I don't know if he it his way, wow, I don't know if he coined the way, but there are the aficionados that that's what they would do. Just take the patience.

Speaker 2: 3:50

It's worth the two to three minutes of slowly roasting and warming up the cigar, the tobacco, the first time that I had somebody who was more experienced lighting a cigar for me was at a cafe in Las Vegas called Arto Fuentes.

Speaker 1: 4:12

That's a. That's a brand of cigar.

Speaker 2: 4:14

Yes, so he has. He has a cafe in Las Vegas in one of the hotels there I think it's it could be Caesars.

Speaker 1: 4:23

We'll have to double check that, but It'd be like a diamond cigar lounge. It's yeah, it's awesome it's awesome.

Speaker 2: 4:28

It's an amazing lounge, so that was the first time I ever went there. But the person who serves you at your table coffee and whatnot will come light your cigar for you and so they're rotating it and taking the time yeah, they'll grab your cigar, they'll have their, their torch and they'll sit there and they'll basically ignite it. The end of it, get it all nice and golden, amber, brown and glowing, and then they'll hand it to you. Perfect.

Speaker 1: 4:56

That's how it should be done.

Speaker 2: 4:58

Honestly, that's the way to do it Ever since I saw that, and that was probably back in like early 2000s. That's how I light my cigars now.

Speaker 1: 5:05

That's the way to do it. You got it. You're already. You're already a VAP expert, but it does make a difference. It does. But, I always.

Speaker 2: 5:14

I would never smoke my cigar to the point where it was so close to my fingers.

Speaker 1: 5:18

Yes.

Speaker 2: 5:19

So what I would need that dagger spear thing, I would always. I would always just smoke it to the collar.

Speaker 1: 5:26

Look at these ends over here I have beside me.

Speaker 2: 5:29

Right.

Speaker 1: 5:29

Like that's about an inch, maybe two. I also look at a number of things. Right, this was a Churchill, so this is a big cigar from JC Newman. This is their factory finish. You get in-house One of my favorites. But I also look at two things. I'm probably at the end of the cigar. I've had enough. It's been an hour. You know what I'm saying. You can feel the tobacco is changing in the flavor, so I just let it go. You know. But I guess for some of the more listen, all cigars are premium. Uh, you know there are extravagant price points, but at the end of the day I can see somebody potentially getting that spear. Just for that I'm going to burn it right down. But I don't know, man, sometimes the cigars are never the same. At the last inch or two they just flavors the palette. Everything changes.

Speaker 2: 6:17

That are just the cool factor of holding one of those I. What attracted my eye to them was the design. If you go check them out on Instagram cigar dagger, it was just the designs of them. They have all these different tops to them. Um, and the art artistry about it is what. What attracted me to it, but I don't think I'd ever use it.

Speaker 1: 6:37

No, it's a cool factor.

Speaker 2: 6:39

I think that's what it is. Pull out one of those at a party Everyone's like look at this guy, he's eating.

Speaker 1: 6:51

You know, speaking of hors d'oeuvres. I was at a business networking event down here and some, some guy didn't know because it's french, right, when you know hors d'oeuvres, how it's spent spelled he was reading in front of a group he's like, or the arabs like it was the funniest thing and but nobody in the room knew what it was. It's maybe very canadian, very french like, or do you know, right, it was a giggling of laughter in there and we had to help the poor guy. I'll be like. It's hors d'oeuvres. You know finger foods, you know that's funny. Well, it's been a minute, it's been a minute.

Speaker 2: 7:26

Oh my gosh, been freaking. I was looking up our last episode and we released the last episode october of last year long time being a long time.

Speaker 1: 7:39

Yeah, given up, we don't give up, we don't give up.

Speaker 2: 7:43

We don't give up. We just have to take a pause for a hiatus and I think we'll definitely get into that. So for those of you who are just logging in now and watching welcome, welcome back. That's right, we need to put that song, welcome back. You know from that.

Speaker 1: 8:10

Television yeah, beginning, yeah, yeah, you know the from that. Uh, television, yeah, yeah, beginning, yeah, yeah, uh, yeah. If it's your first time listening, this is where we want you to dream bigger, make waves and take action. It's our motto. It's so important that we progress in that way. So if it's your first time being an entrepreneur or you're thinking about being an entrepreneur, we cover all of those in our previous episodes. If you're in the middle, we have those guests who want to share those stories, and if you're uber successful in business, we have those folks on as well. So we want to showcase what it's like to leave the nine to five, and that you can leave the nine to five because we've done it, despite all the chaos and craziness, that we have taken action. We've dreamt bigger. Those are things that you have to do and and without taking action, you're not going to get any. So thank you for joining us. We're on what? Youtube?

Speaker 1: 8:57

youtube, instagram, spotify all your audio platforms yep most platforms and and we are those two dudes, as one of our guests coined the phrase, we are the two dudes and we just want to bring you the authentic story, the authentic story of what dave and rich are doing so welcome to the podcast, welcome back.

Speaker 2: 9:22

Thanks for sticking it out and waiting for us to come on back to this platform. It's been as we said. It's been a minute, it's been a while. We're going to jump into it. If you're following us, thank you very much. If you've continued along this venture journey of us, thank you very much for following and sticking through.

Speaker 2: 9:42

We have a lot of things to cover today and this probably will be like a part one and a part two episode. I could see it definitely going over. There's a whole bunch of things that has happened over the last seven months in both of our lives and to catch everyone on all great, great, great things, and you'll understand why we ended up having to take a hiatus. But if you're following, please subscribe, make sure you continue. We are now starting it up again. The motor of the ford is being wound up and we're getting it going again. Thanks very much, we appreciate it. If you don't like the episode, share it anyways. That's what I always say. Share it anyways, someone else might enjoy it. I think we got some audio issues. It's season three or four. There we go. Yeah, we're on a delay now, I think.

Speaker 1: 10:39

And now Dave is are we in season three or season four? I would say Are we? What's going on?

Speaker 2: 10:46

Yeah, we're lagging. We're lagging on your end.

Speaker 1: 10:50

All right, let's let's close some of our apps. It's that florida wi-fi okay, bear with me everyone, bear with me everyone. It it is. It's uh rusty day.

Speaker 2: 11:03

We have to go back like we're seasoned veterans here in the podcast space and we're going back right you know, in terms of, in terms of seasons, I would say this is probably going to be season four, yeah it has to be season four.

Speaker 1: 11:21

Yeah, there we go. I think, uh, I think we're good. How are we looking now? Yes, we're good we're good, much better. I closed a few apps. I get the Florida sun cook in my, my laptop and I'm like, ah, it's probably melting everything here.

Speaker 2: 11:37

So we're on, we're on a lag, we're on a lag still.

Speaker 1: 11:42

Still really. Oh my gosh everyone, oh my gosh Technology.

Speaker 2: 11:50

Well, there it goes, it fixed it we're now we?

Speaker 1: 11:57

well, there it goes. It fixed it. We are now. We're now live. Maybe we have to talk slower, as always. Maybe we got our coffee to start the show cheers cheers. I don't have a nice fancy mug like you. I got a fancy mug, but what are you talking?

Speaker 2: 12:11

about yours is beautiful. It's very fitting to where you are. So let maybe we should jump into the obvious right the? Yes, you know we went from having our last episode filmed in a studio to back online and yes, we should probably fill in everyone why we're online and why does it look like you're sitting in a prison.

Speaker 1: 12:45

Well, folks, I have decided to break free from the norm and venture somewhere beyond the borders of the country. So you know, dave, and I have large aspirations to. You know, expand our business horizons beyond Canada. We have great interest and I think if you're an entrepreneur, you know, expand our business horizons beyond Canada. We have great interest. And I think if you're an entrepreneur, you have to look outside the mold or the fish tank that you've been thrown in growing up your whole life. You know Toronto, this Vancouver, that Montreal, whatever. I'm like, yeah, there's more to life than these places. So one of the biggest things was looking at a business in the U? S and that's where we are.

Speaker 1: 13:16

I'm down in beautiful Orlando, florida, but it's a nice wall, kind of it's artistic. You know it's feng shui or something and I wipe the trim and and stuff. But yeah we're. We're down here in beautiful Florida, super hot, which I love. I can't stand the cold. Dave knows I never want to see the cold. I don't see gray skies here. I just get intense rainstorms for an hour and then it's bright, sunny, blue skies for the rest of the day you know, as toronto's getting warmer, like we were talking this morning, we're hitting a whopping 14 today, um it.

Speaker 2: 14:12

It brings, it brings my jealousy to to the 10th degree when I when I see people. But, that being said, I'm blessed to have what we have here and I'm happy with what we have and what we built. But it's, this is about you, your venture. So let's let's 34. So let's do it. Let's, let's do it. Let's jump into what you're doing out there.

Speaker 1: 14:36

Yeah, so we own a property restoration franchise and I know in a few episodes way back we were talking about that process going on, but there were a lot of uncertainties. It's a big journey to navigate, to work in an international perspective and operate a business elsewhere. So in Orlando, florida, we have a property franchise called Restoration One and we own the entire greater Orlando area and what's been incredible about this is you're in a great state for this type of business. You're helping people, which we love to do, and we're building relationships with incredible people here to help them get to back back to normal in a time of chaos.

Speaker 1: 15:19

So this journey has been nothing but straightforward. There's been no straightforward. I should say it has been crazy, and Dave knows it's crazy, but it speaks to what we talked about in the show resiliency. But it speaks to what we talk about in the show resiliency not giving up the peaks and valleys and we had to like step away from the podcast because it was consuming so much that it was unfair for us to come together, for even me to dedicate time and really have my, my thoughts and things together in order to share them with everyone.

Speaker 1: 15:52

But it has been an amazing journey so far, and when you think you hit like a speed bump, that's like a mountain you have to climb and you're like, oh my gosh. Well, once you get to the top and you get back down again like well, that was easy. What's next, you know? So there's a lot, of, a lot of that taking place. Right now we're in the process of hiring our first employee outside of me at the moment. Now we're in the process of hiring, uh, our first employee outside of me at the moment.

Speaker 1: 16:18

So that's, that's, uh, it's going, it's going. You're right, you got to make moves and before you know, we'll probably have a few dozen people working for us and and treating them like family and treating them like you know they're, they're respected and loved and fostered and can build, uh, a great career with us in the industry. It's recession proof, it's pandemic proof. You know, it's a necessity. You can't live in a home when it's damaged with water, mold, fire, biohazard. You know, auntie sued, suddenly died in her bed and we haven't heard from her in three months. But we gotta, we gotta do something about that. What's the shout out to?

Speaker 2: 16:54

what company. But we got to do something about that.

Speaker 1: 16:56

Yeah, so shout out to what company this is Restoration One I mentioned earlier. Restoration One Great, Okay, Awesome. Restoration One is a. We should talk, actually, a little bit about it. Restoration One started here in Orlando, Florida, okay, or somewhere in Miami, I can't remember, but it started here in Florida maybe 20 years ago and they're now headquartered in Texas, Dallas or somewhere in Miami, I can't remember, but started here in Florida maybe 20 years ago and they're now headquartered in Texas, Dallas, Texas, and they are a US-wide franchise and it just continues to grow. There's incredible opportunity and it's a fantastic place to be to be.

Speaker 2: 17:32

So your company is basically after calling nine-one-one to to get all my cat from the tree because of the tornado that hit my house.

Speaker 1: 17:43

Yes, your company is number two, I call, I call your company and you come Once you wake up the fire department.

Speaker 1: 17:53

Yeah, Once you wake up, the fire department get, have your 911 for your emergency services, but we're your 911 for your property Because, again, the health hazards that come with not managing an emergency like that and it could be a simple hot water tank, it could be an air conditioning unit that's leaking water into your home. These things run behind walls, they go down to your trim, they hide in your foundation Like they will cause mold very quickly, in less than 48 hours. And it's amazing to see how many people live with mold and don't even know they have it in their home because there's a leak. You know, we have clients right now who have had a pinhole leak for probably maybe 15 years. It was trapped behind a jacuzzi tub and the second story of their home and the amount of rot and mold has just destroyed the structure of the home, the flooring, the studs. The damage is astronomical and people are living not even knowing that they have these issues until it finally hits a breaking point.

Speaker 1: 19:04

But, yes, you have to call us. You can't get in there, you can't remediate these things on your own. It takes skill, it takes training, it takes certification on your own. It takes skill, it takes training, it takes certification and it's vitally important for for people to have a safe environment to live with their families or their businesses. You know, like we dave, you can't have stretch lab when you have an inch of water on the floor and it's going up your wall like you got to dry that place out. You know you got to get the right people in which we had, did you? Oh my God?

Speaker 2: 19:36

We did. We had three mini floods in our first location.

Speaker 1: 19:40

Oh, my God.

Speaker 2: 19:41

Anyways, I want to stick to what you're doing. So let's jump back to the decision to actually leave Canada, to the decision to actually leave Canada, the decision to actually get out of this country, get to another country you had made the decision to purchase the franchise. But to the actual decision. How did that play out and what were you going through at the time?

Speaker 1: 20:10

This is a deep personal journey, dave, very deep. So most of you probably know I spent I was entering my 14th year as a police officer and I'm like I'm not satisfied. Here anymore we're not doing anything to help the community. You just kind of burn out. You realize that there's more to life and you see the limited beliefs I hate to say this of your peers and generally and I'm going to paint the industry like this people in policing have limited beliefs. They're trapped in this fish tank.

Speaker 1: 20:42

We've kind of discussed some of these things on previous shows, if you go back to our whole digital library. And so they have no aspirations of doing anything other than this job and then they get to retirement and drop dead. And I kept seeing all these guys I worked with. Then they drop dead. Then they drop dead and it's like so I'm not fulfilled. These people are working for a pension. Then they're having to get jobs and they retire. There's something more here. We need to explore this. So I end up resigning.

Speaker 1: 21:10

I spend a lot of time in Costa Rica and then I start seeing these villas and at the time my wife and I we were active real estate investors. We owned a number of properties, and we were like, you know, we want to bring our investing structure to Costa Rica, maybe Panama, colombia, mexico and Costa Rica. And well, how are we going to do that? Yes, they have their own currencies, but at the same time, they use the us dollar. Well, how are we going to generate substantial us dollar? So all of these things are flowing through our mind and then you know, this is the middle of covid as well. Well, that was a whole change and I I'll be blunt, I'm disappointed what I see happening in Canada. You can see a lot of great discussion on this topic right now, but people who are like get me the F out of here. It's becoming a. It's the more we travel, the more we realize it's, in a weird way, a third world nation. You know, from our health care to how things are being managed, there's no perfect answer, but there are so many things that could have been done to keep great people there.

Speaker 1: 22:19

We don't want to be there. We need to diversify our business. We need to go back to our goals of let's invest in Latin America, let's invest in the US. And how are we going to do this? Well, dave, we interviewed a gentleman on our show around that time which we didn't know any of this. I don't think you and I even knew any of this. Franchise consultant, giuseppe Grammatico, I think what? Episode 2226. And he's talking about how people around the world obtain an investor visa to invest in the US. And I'm like I need to talk more to you. Thank God we had interviewed you and that's where it came from. So one thing led to the next, which just was the domino effect. To now, we're investors in the US under this particular visa and we are generating jobs, we're generating income and we're supporting the US economy, and it has been an incredible journey and something that we don't regret right now amazing, so amazing.

Speaker 1: 23:17

What a what a series of events, a series of events and we're glad we left when we did, because it's still getting crazy there. It's just the nonsense, you know it's it's. It's sad because those who have had the ability to leave have left and or have the or still have other strategies to go. Why would you want to stay? I'm sorry, I'll be. Why would you want to stay? I'm sorry, I'll be blunt. Why would you want to stay, like, just get out, go. There's again no perfect answer, no perfect government. I'm not left or right. None of us are. You need to think about what's best for yourself and for your families, and I look back at my family leaving Italy and Europe, come to Canada. Well, they had to make those same decisions in the late 40s and 50s following the war. I'm that next generation making those decisions, with my family to go. We need to move on to something different.

Speaker 2: 24:02

Yeah, and you don't know if it's the right decision. It's just you're making the decision with the information you have at the time and you're basing it on your knowledge that you have at the time and what's good for you, and most of it is just a feeling.

Speaker 1: 24:16

Yeah. So I was what's good for you and most of it is just a feeling yeah. So I was gonna say, dave, you hit something right there. You go with the best information you have. At the time that was some of the greatest advice I got when I started my policing career from one of the senior members there and he had suggested anytime you're finding yourself unsure, stop the what ifs. There were a lot of people what if? I was never a what if her? But I knew someone who was, and this leader came forward and going you need to act on the information you know now. You can't analysis, paralysis, you can't continue to research, you can't speculate, you can't what if you have the information? Make that decision now, otherwise you're never going to take action right, and that's to your point. We had to do that based on what we knew and what we still know.

Speaker 2: 25:01

We're making those decisions yeah, you know it's funny. I take I I take a lot of lessons that I learned in law enforcement and I apply them to business and when you put them in a different framework, it really works. Yes.

Speaker 1: 25:21

Transformable skills.

Speaker 2: 25:22

Oh, very much. So I've taken the aspect of Assess Plan Act. Oh okay, I've always been doing it, but then to teach somebody who is not commonly referred to as those terms and bring that to their awareness is like a light bulb goes off in their head when you explain it to them. The Assess Plan Act is something that, for those who are watching this, who have no idea what we're talking about, it's based on the use of force model, yes, which just got revamped.

Speaker 1: 26:03

There's a new model out. I had a high level view of it. I just I was like policing is just yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:08

Canada anyways, we won't go down that road. But actually a friend of mine was on the committee who who developed that? But um, yeah, um, the what was I saying? Anyways, assess, plan act, and explaining what the force model is so yeah right and so I I don't.

Speaker 2: 26:29

I don't go down the road of explaining the use of force model to them, but just the aspects of assess, plan, act are very valuable things to when you're making decision making and it is a great process to actually go through and if you actually slow it down and break it down because the use of force model is meant for to make decisions on easy way for you to make decision, to assess what the situation is, plan out an appropriate plan of action towards the situation and then act based on the situation with the information. But it does bring to light of using the information that you have at the time.

Speaker 1: 27:07

Yes.

Speaker 2: 27:09

And then using that information to create a plan and then act on it. Those have been three valuable things that I've installed into my staff that work within our businesses and it is coming back tenfold in terms of productivity, in terms of how they make personal decisions. There's a couple other tools and tricks that I've been using to motivate them to do work and motivate them to stay bought into the process and stuff like that, but Assess Plan Act has been great, so shout out to our law enforcement careers for teaching us that 100%.

Speaker 1: 27:46

And you're right, and you know the amount of guests, or I should even say people that we've talked to, like, hey, why don't you come on the show and they don't feel ready? You have to explain to them that you have transferable skills. Just that Assess plan act. There are things that you can take from your profession, but sometimes they just don't see it. So, yeah, going back to going back to the law enforcement world, yeah, like policing, there were tremendous things that that were learned and acquired that I can now deploy Look, I'm using these buzzwords deploy things that can be utilized in business, that provide structure, that provide a clear path for your business and how you're going to make actions and make decisions, and it's vital, it's key. So, yeah, that's a great one Information that you know at the time. There's your homework, everyone. Use what you know. Now. Stop speculating.

Speaker 2: 28:35

That's right, so let's continue with that progress. So you got yourself and your little family out to Florida. And now you're there and you're getting your business up and running. What did that look like?

Speaker 1: 28:52

So it's. I'll be honest, as a foreigner, as an international investor, it is a challenge to do a lot of things down here, from my gosh banking information to credit cards, to licenses, to really anything and everything that you take for granted as easy as logging in into at home. Boom, boom, boom, click, apply. It is quadruple, 10 times over the work, very frustrating. And there are times when we were talking at the beginning of the show about battle of again Valleys, you just think, oh my gosh, this is the worst thing to ever happen. And then you get me to come back there like OK, easy, got through it, what's next? Bring on the next challenge. Very difficult to get things going here. Very, very, very difficult. One of the things I laugh at. You're going to find this interesting. So in our businesses, obviously credit cards are a way of payment and trying to find a payment processor that isn't doing credit checks on you. But it's your business that you're operating. So, like, how does that make sense? Like, why are you doing a credit check on me when my business is the one accepting payment? It's the business. I could be gone tomorrow. The business is still operating and you're starting to learn things like the Patriot Act and why they do things like that. And I'm like you're telling me Jeff Bezos is giving his credit information to have run so they can use credit cards. And the long and the short is yes, if you're a publicly traded company, a member of the board of the director has to submit their personal credit, their SIN and their social security numbers to have this done. And to me it's just like mind blowing all this silly stuff. I'm like how does it make sense? Like amazon is a company, why are you checking a personal credit? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the credit, it's just the fact of things don't make sense. But you have to find and ask questions to understand why things are being done a certain way and, of course, is to prevent fraud and all these other issues, but stuff like that is just mind-boggling. Um, so there's a lot of hidden gems, uh, licenses. People's understanding well, what's mold remediation? Oh, is it? Is it like gas station remediation of an abandoned fuel location? It's like, no, we're doing mold remediation. Yeah, but remediation means also something different in the state. Like, well, we're not, we're not, you know, and as you go to a gas station and they do that, they let them sit abandoned.

Speaker 1: 31:19

It goes through these cycles for you like, we don't do that having conversations, asking more questions, giving the details. So there's a lot of journey, discovery processes for for all of these components that have gone on um anyway. So we kind of fast forward. So we're getting through a lot of those things Every day. There's a growing pain. Still there's something new we're discovering.

Speaker 1: 31:40

Just when you think you have everything okay, things are looking smooth for the next few weeks, nope, some other hurdle comes in and you got to handle it. So business is operational now, incredible networking opportunities, incredible people. We're meeting Incredible families and business owners. We're helping through a time of chaos and it's just one day at a time it's. You know, dave, we spoke about being prepared to grow quickly but at the same time, not so quickly that you can't handle your leads coming in.

Speaker 1: 32:13

There's a lot of that stuff happening right now is what's our plan? What happens if I can't answer the phone? What are we going to do? So we're very blessed that things like mold work, for example. That stuff can be scheduled so we can push things out. But when those 911 calls come in, that toilets overflow, hurricanes hit, massive flood in the house, you got to get there as quickly as you can because your competition is going to scoop in if you don't. So it's trying to manage now. It's. Now it's the, the systems and processes of your business. You already have experience with customers and trying to go okay, what worked from my experience with people and what hasn't, and then fine-tuning a system and a process that can be put into a standard operating procedure right, right, yeah, that policing, law enforcement talk and then delivering that as your mold for continued business performance and professionalism for future clients with our team.

Speaker 2: 33:08

Right.

Speaker 1: 33:10

It's awesome. I hope that makes sense.

Speaker 2: 33:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:14

I went through a lot right. It's still. There's still stuff going. There's still stuff going. There's still stuff Sure.

Speaker 2: 33:19

Sure, well, what would you say was the the biggest hurdle, other than the bureaucratic stuff that you're dealing with? Um, what would you say would be the biggest hurdle?

Speaker 1: 33:30

You know a big hurdle and and uh, I think it's the Taurus in me. You know that that calm you know we'll go to the horoscope era is you get hungry for business, and so I'm very calm. I'm not an aggressive person, understanding that business when it's ready. We're not in the service industry of I've opened up my restaurant, come and get food. Now we're in an industry where when something happens, you need to think of us and being top of mind. You know you're not running to 7-Eleven, you're not going to your Petro Canada gas station to grab a whatever at two in the morning. You got to know who to call, when to call, because those things are all over the place.

Speaker 1: 34:10

So one of the biggest hurdles or challenges is you want to stay top of mind with people, and how we've overcome that is continual in-person networking. You know we're old school in a way. We're not relying heavily on digital marketing. We're not blank solely on the internet and technology and artificial intelligence doing a lot of that work. It's literally boots on the ground showing up at all the networking meeting events, which is how we had a discussion about cigars and stars at the beginning of the show, because it was an idea. I love cigars, met. Somebody said hey, anybody smoke cigars at the chamber of commerce? Oh my God, we do. We do an event. All of these things lead to relationships, referrals and it's your brand and reputation. So having the patience as a Taurus and letting those things grow is where you're going to get those things, but it's that's a challenge for people and other business owners struggle there. It's been a month. We haven't had a lead yet, but in our industry one lead can be a $40,000 job right.

Speaker 1: 35:12

You know, and that might take you two weeks to get complete of whatever it is from start to finish. So maybe it's worth those three weeks of getting a quality lead in your startup versus a thousand smaller jobs that you can't keep up with because you're too new and you're not prepared to deal with the expect. You know exponential growth that takes place. So it's that would that would be. One of the biggest things is working on the leads. It's a struggle, it's it's being top of mind planning for a business development person who can be you know, be there, which honestly I enjoy doing. I don't even know if I'll hire someone right now for that role. The time comes where we're happy to go and do these networking things. But it's building an awarding team that can accommodate those, those referrals that come in and those 911 calls at two in the morning.

Speaker 2: 35:53

Yeah, so you have your. You have your first truck.

Speaker 1: 36:00

Got a first truck ton of equipment. We have three offices. Dave, it's an incredible feeling from a time of what is this we're doing? We can come down here and do this as investors. And we had so many roadblocks. We had a lot of roadblockscks I don't know if that can be a whole episode on roadblocks. We had a lot of issue getting started because of the housing market in canada. Uh, but we have our first truck, we got our equipment, we got offices.

Speaker 2: 36:29

We got so much potential right, you know if, if you were to look back at the last seven months, what's one thing you would do over again or do differently? Oh wow, that's a good one.

Speaker 1: 36:51

I want to preface that by saying that there's no right or wrong way to do anything. A wrong way to do anything and I've, I think you and I know this very early on that as entrepreneurs and business owners, you need to venture into the unknown, and that could be something like a client going hey, do you do this service? It's in your wheelhouse and you know I don't. I haven't, but I know how to do it. Or I know someone that can do it. It's just yes, we can do that and we're going to find how to do that.

Speaker 1: 37:21

To answer your question, I really think it's a lot of don't be afraid to continue to venture into the dark shadows, you or your own flashlight, to go into the corners and to see what needs to be done. I'm not saying that we weren't aggressive like that, but it was always constantly reminding myself of man. I haven't gone down here before. It's unfamiliar. You have to keep walking, shine your flashlight, keep going looking for the answer, because there is no right or wrong way. You're making your own way.

Speaker 1: 37:49

There's no right or wrong way to do anything. Make that path like that path, so to do things differently. Path. Light that path, so to do things differently. Man, that's a tough one, I you know. If I look back, if I had somebody entering the industry again, I could give them maybe some more guidance. But because we're international investors, I think we just had a whole different, different experience than most people who would have it very easy to to to enter here into the space most people who would have it very easy to to to enter here into the space, you know.

Speaker 1: 38:22

So it's hard to pick one thing. It's hard to pick one thing I, you know, like yeah, and it's a marceni's van over whatever.

Speaker 2: 38:28

Like yeah yeah, yeah, so I. The reason, the reason I asked the question is because, as we were talking, before you got to go, you got to make decisions with the information you have at the time. But now that you're past that time, you can always look back and say that was either a good decision or it was a decision that I won't do again. Got you Like stepping in a puddle, right, you step in the puddle and you're like it wasn't so bad, I didn't get my sock wet. But then you step in the puddle and you're like it wasn't so bad, I didn't get my sock wet. But then you step in the puddle and you got your sock wet. You're like next time I won't be distracted, I'll look down, right, yeah, but you won't know until you get through it.

Speaker 2: 39:06

So it's it's. It's just making the decisions, what you have. But that you know. For for myself, that's one thing that I I constantly do is look back and say, okay, what did I do a month ago? What did I do a month ago? What did I do a couple of days ago? Will I do that again? How do I traverse through this problem that I'm having now? And it's just building that bank of once you've done it, once you now know what it's like to deal with that specific situation, and you can move forward on it.

Speaker 1: 39:36

So we were traversing the puddles, dave?

Speaker 2: 39:38

Yes, For those of you who are listening or watching, we all. We had a little technical error. Tornado came through.

Speaker 1: 39:53

Run and seek shelter.

Speaker 2: 39:55

Technology tornado, not an actual. We had to stop our recording and record again. These are are the problems right? These are things. These are things you have to do when you're recording podcasts from country to country yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 100, 100.

Speaker 1: 40:09

One day, when we have the official making wave studio dave, it will be seamless connection through satellites yeah, that's right, you got it, you got it so we were talking about.

Speaker 1: 40:20

You know, uh, you know not getting your foot wet again. You know, not getting that sock and shoe all swampy and gross because you stepped in a puddle. Um, I think part of the the entrepreneurial journey is understanding that there is no right or wrong answer. Have to kind of really discover your own ways of doing things. And you know, as I look back, that business plan was critical and having something in play that keeps you hyper-focused on who your market is, what your competitors are doing, what you're setting yourself out to do differently than everybody else and that's what can help you, I think, make decisions that won't get your foot wet, but you know to do something different again. Honestly, when I think back right now, nothing's coming to mind. That was like, oh shit, I really wish I did that.

Speaker 1: 41:10

I did a lot of things different. I asked a lot of questions. I spoke to owners. I attended their locations, met with them how do they process things? And, using this information, I made some good decisions to help me do things to avoid getting my foot wet of equipment that was purchased. I might go. You know I don't like this type of product again. A, b, c, d is the reason why I want to look for an alternative.

Speaker 1: 41:43

There's lots of those little things, but from a business getting started, I don't think we could have done anything different. You know we had a franchise consultant. We went along. We talk about having mentors. You know that's always there. I would love to have a mentor, but at this moment, in the startup point and with the finances of the business, it's not there. I have enough to get me just to where I need to be, but maybe in the next six months we'll look at bringing someone on board to avoid the puddle.

Speaker 1: 42:12

But yeah, dave, that's the best answer is, I think, just because we had a very clear plan, we did our homework, we acted with the information we knew it really prevented us from getting wet, you know, literally. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I hate to say it, I don't want to sound perfect, but there's nothing urgently coming to mind, and I'm even trying to think of times that you and I have spoken. It's like you know, did we buy the wrong van? Like no, or what did we do differently in the process? Like no, like I think we nailed it. I think we nailed it.

Speaker 2: 42:40

We did good, that's great, that's great and it's nice to look back, but you won't know. You know at this stage you won't know what you did wrong until you're maybe a year from now or a year from now you're going to look back and you're like, yeah, we nailed everything and we continue to nail everything. Everything's great.

Speaker 1: 43:00

That's awesome. I'll be the first to admit if we had fault in some way that we can learn from and to share with our audience. But I think it helps. You have the analogy, dave, that a franchise. Two things. I want to take a step back.

Speaker 1: 43:18

I've noticed, since we've been in business, some sometimes we were like, oh, it's a franchise, oh, it's a franchise. People just kind of like, oh, and for some reason they think it's like something easy. I'm like it's not easy. It's just as hard, if not maybe harder, than starting a business from scratch. All you have is a manual that says build the lego blocks this way. Doesn't mean you don't have to do the work. Doesn't mean you don't have to put in the time. Doesn't mean you don't have to go through the the, the ups and downs. Like it's very challenging. And for those who have operated a franchise, you'll understand like there's nothing easy about that. Right, you know you're not going to a certain fast food chain and all the money's raking in. Well, they had to get trained, they had to facilitate team building, they had to ensure customer experience is on board and that referrals keep coming back.

Speaker 2: 44:07

The same thing it's no different, you know so yeah, yeah, it's true, sorry, give me one second. Can we pause? For a second we can pause? Yeah, yeah, sorry, I just got a text see when business calls dave right even podcast has to stop podcast has to stop business first, right? Um, where were we? What were we saying? What were we talking about?

Speaker 1: 44:36

we were on to the. Uh, you know the, the lessons, and you know would you do things differently. Having that business plan was key Right.

Speaker 2: 44:47

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 44:48

And you know, transitioning from that point, you know having structure is important. You can't willy nilly a business and you know a franchise is just as difficult and challenging as maybe somebody who's innovative just starting something from scratch. You have the same problems. Just because it's a franchise doesn't mean it's any different. It's just a model. You're borrowing a model and you're using a model.

Speaker 2: 45:08

Yeah, definitely you still need to run a business and, if I've learned anything about the franchise stuff, there's still a big business portion that you need to develop and foster and work through. You didn't get anything free.

Speaker 1: 45:23

It didn't make it easier. I didn't get anything free. It didn't make it easier. We had to build all that stuff up yeah, the.

Speaker 2: 45:28

The aspects of the franchise that are beneficial for someone purchasing a franchise are the back-end resources is what's beneficial. So you don't have to go out there and research a. You know, in our situation we have a um, a management, a club management system that does pos and all the back-end stuff, so we didn't have to go out and research and find a company or develop a company for that um, the, the marketing material, the um, the aesthetics of the studio, like those are the kind of things that you buy a franchise for, yes, but but the actual operational running, the day-to-day, the human resources aspect of it, the, the, the, the interaction for people, the, the. What do you do when the power's off in your building?

Speaker 1: 46:19

yeah, type issues shut it down.

Speaker 2: 46:21

Yeah right, yeah, right. So like there's, there's, there's all of that kind of stuff that is part makes part of running the actual business that the franchise won't give you direction on, because those are specific.

Speaker 1: 46:33

You need to be a problem, you need to be a problem solver and you know I had a. I had an employee come with me to a job site the other week and they said you know, this is really an industry and really all business is about problem solving. It's okay to tell your customer I don't have the answer, I will go find it. It is okay, put your ego in your bed and shut up, just figure it out. But there's a lot of people that were not like you and I and they will just fudge their way through stuff. I'm like just be transparent, because the client, when they see that you have the confidence and actually you give me the three points, I love what you said. It was you know when they, when they see that you have confidence, you have the ability to solve their problems, you're not feeling shy and insecure yourself. You know that's where you win the customer and so they're okay with that and it's about building that relationship.

Speaker 1: 47:25

You know how would you treat them? Like your family or would you treat them like the garbage? Go find the answer. So it's, problem solving is tremendous. You have to be resourceful. That's the other thing. Yeah, who do you know who's in your network anybody you met the chamber or some other bni initiative uh, anybody in your path, resourceful, problem solving. But that's part about the making waves philosophy dream bigger, make waves, take action. You got to think outside the box and use your skills and talents yeah, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2: 47:55

well, I'm glad we were able to catch up and let people know what's happened over the last seven months and why we've been MIA. So, uh, we have a lot more to jump in, but so much let's. I think I think this is a good time to sort of let our people know that we're back, we're here, we're going to continue forward with these and we'll get these recordings in and hopefully we won't have any choppy, choppy technology.

Speaker 1: 48:25

Technology. Yeah, I was getting a message from my wife going. I think the internet's down.

Speaker 2: 48:30

I'm like, well, you're telling me we're in the middle, yeah, but for those of you who are watching, thank you for much for subscribing. Thank you for following us. Thank you for sticking with us. We're back. Thank you for following us. Thank you for sticking with us. We're back. If you haven't subscribed, click that button to subscribe. Share, share, share. Share it with somebody who needs to hear this from people Someone who's in their job, who's just not loving life, someone who maybe we all know someone like that.

Speaker 2: 49:00

Yeah, we all know someone like that. Maybe they're just looking for something else to do and they're looking to do the hardest thing, which is that first step, so send it to them. Um, and, as you don't like the show, share it anyways. Share it anyways. There's got to be people out there that you think in the back of your head need to hear.

Speaker 1: 49:16

These two dudes, these two dudes we should call the two dudes podcast, right? You don't like the show? Share it, that's right. Well, everyone, that's everything. Dave, where can our listeners and viewers find you?

Speaker 2: 49:34

Yeah, which we'll get into on our next episode. But you can either come on down to one of our two locations or our third location, business, which we'll get into the next time. Um, but you can follow us on instagram stretch lab, toronto, or mobility house, or my personal mobility there's david a moscow there's a lot of stuff, folks.

Speaker 1: 49:59

We, you know, even on my end we did a late scooting over in the last 50 minutes, but you know that was the Reader's Digest, the Kohl's Notes, you know. Anybody know what Kohl's Notes are out there anymore? I don't know. That was the skimming version. There are so many things that Dave and I can talk about in greater detail about my journey, so, but yeah, we'll get into that and you can find yours truly mainly Instagram, linkedin, linkedin's like adult Facebook. I just keep getting all these requests now from people and somebody viewed your profile. I'm like, wow, you know, Richard DiBiase, on all those platforms, everyone. So continue to dream bigger, make waves and take action in life, and we will talk to you on our next episode, amazing.