“Laundromat Mike” joins us on the show today to drop a boat load of laundromat wisdom! As a distributor and broker, Michael Ambrose knows this business forwards and backwards. He meets with owners and operators, tours laundromats, and goes the extra mile to ensure his clients have success, and today he wants to make sure you’re set up for success, too!

Michael leverages his knowledge, experience, and relationships to help you know what to look for in a distributor, how to best work with a distributor, and even gives his insight into what he sees successful owners consistently doing. 

With a servant’s heart, humble attitude, and wise counsel, Michael is the kind of distributor you want in your corner!

In today’s show, Michael and I talk about:

  • The Laundromat Mike brand
  • What is a distributor
  • How to best work with a distributor
  • The process of getting his first laundromat
  • What successful owners do consistently
  • Commonalities among struggling owners
  • Due diligence
  • The importance of a good lease
  • What makes a good lease
  • Diligence Capital Investments
  • Passive laundromat investing

And WAY more!

Listen To The Podcast Here

Watch The Podcast Here

Today's Sponsor

Laundromat Resource Marketing If you need help building or managing a website for your laundromats, let the experts at Laundromat Resource Marketing help you design and build a custom, professional website for you! As experts in the laundromat industry AND in web design and online marketing, we at Laundromat Resource Marketing are able to provide you with a professional website at an affordable price. We’re always transparent so there are no hidden fees. What we quote you is what you pay. Satisfaction and performance guaranteed! With no contracts to sign and guarantees like that, why not let us take care of your online presence while you focus on welcoming all of your new laundry customers? Click the logo or link above to find out more information. 

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    Episode Transcript

    hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with the
    laundromat resource podcast
    i’m pumped you’re here today because
    today i just can’t even say it with a
    straight face anymore because you guys
    make fun of me about it so much but i
    am pumped today because today i have a
    super good friend of mine on his name is
    michael ambrose
    and he is awesome like
    he is one of the coolest guys that you
    will ever meet
    and in fact he’s so cool he and i have
    partnered in some stuff together
    and you’ll hear a little bit about it
    today and hear how maybe you might be
    able to get involved in what we’re doing
    but not only am i pumped because he’s my
    friend but he just brings
    so much wisdom so much experience in
    this business
    and i i think you’re really gonna learn
    a lot uh he comes at it from
    the distributor side and the agent
    broker side
    and he’s gonna talk a lot about uh
    distributor ships and how to work with a
    good distributor and how to find a good
    distributor
    but he’s also going to share a lot of
    wisdom that he’s gained
    just from going through a ton
    of different laundromats meeting a ton
    of different laundromat owners probably
    some of you guys who are listening right
    now
    if you know him you know he is just a
    solid solid human being
    and really knows his stuff in this
    business so i know you’re gonna get a
    ton out of this
    i’m really excited for you guys to meet
    him if you haven’t yet to hear what he
    has to say because it’s
    awesome uh all right so number two
    the other reason i’m so pumped today
    like incredibly pumped i don’t know if
    you have tried
    to go on londonmentresource.com over the
    last like week or so
    but it has been a nightmare over there
    uh the website was off and on it was
    glitching out like crazy sometimes you
    couldn’t even get on it
    it was slow as molasses even slower than
    normal which has
    been slow but i am so pumped
    and genuinely excited to let you know
    that
    it is like lightning fast over there now
    and everything should be good and taken
    care of so
    if you have been on the forums and it’s
    just been too slow in fact i got an
    email
    from one of you uh which was uh part
    uh compliment and part uh hey get your
    act together which i really appreciated
    both sides of
    uh but one of you guys sent me an email
    that said hey your site is the slowest
    site that i’ll go visit
    and i was like first of all thank you
    for saying that second of all
    we’re getting it fixed and we got it
    fixed it’s like lightning over there now
    uh super fast so if nothing else that
    should make the forums
    way way way more easy for you to
    interact
    and get to know each other so go check
    out the forums on at resource.com
    forums over there and go ask a question
    answer question it’ll take
    a third of the time it used to take you
    and you’ll be really excited and again
    we’re just we keep trying to do a little
    bit better a little bit better
    making it a little bit easier for you
    guys to connect with each other
    and to connect with us and what we’re
    doing and
    also to share wisdom with each other
    whether that’s
    you know on the podcast on the forums uh
    in the blogs on the youtube wherever
    that might be
    we want you guys to connect with each
    other and connect with the people in
    this industry that are going to help you
    succeed
    and meet your goals financial freedom or
    whatever it might be
    so anyways so pumped so so relieved and
    pumped is
    so stressful for me uh having the sight
    down and
    and just causing so much trouble so
    apologize for any of the inconveniences
    but
    we’re back up in online so go over to
    londonmanresource.com check out what we
    got going on we got webinars every
    single week they’re free
    on thursdays you can sign up at london
    resource.com
    go check out the forums everything else
    we have going on over there it’s
    awesome and we got a lot more in store
    uh coming up super excited okay uh
    the other thing i want to mention is
    this gets alluded to
    kind of throughout uh the the podcast
    episode and we don’t really go into it
    until the end so i just wanted to
    briefly just fill you in on what we’re
    talking about i’m not sure if it was
    clear or not but i just want to make
    sure it is clear
    so michael and i and ross dodds who’s a
    former guest of
    the podcast have started a syndication
    group
    uh called diligent capital investments
    and we are
    um partnering with investors who
    want to be a little bit more passive in
    uh
    their laundromat investment or who may
    want to
    ease their way into laundromats and so
    we’ve put together the syndication
    in order to buy some laundromats and or
    real estate together
    and we talk about this at the very end
    and how you can get involved but check
    out diligentcapitalinvestments.com
    link is in the description on youtube
    the show notes
    that link every other link of everything
    we’re talking about including the forums
    everything that gets mentioned in the
    podcast episode
    they will all be at
    londonmightresource.com show 46
    so check those out there without further
    ado
    and without any other interruptions
    let’s get into it
    with michael ambrose a good buddy of
    mine a distributor
    and just a solid solid human being
    you’re gonna love it
    let’s check it out michael what is up
    man
    i am so excited for you to finally
    finally come on the podcast thanks for
    coming on man how you doing
    i am so excited to be here i’ve seen
    like maybe 45 or 50 people before me
    and i’m finally glad that i was able to
    make my succession in this line
    um i’m really really excited to be here
    as well
    yeah i like what you’re doing um
    the platform that you’ve created is uh
    helping people
    you’ve had some incredible people on
    i’ve watched a bunch of podcasts not all
    of them
    honestly and uh because i don’t have the
    time
    but uh let’s talk about who you hate and
    haven’t watched their episodes
    let’s name them by name there is no one
    everyone you have on is very it’s very
    educational
    um and it’s something that i’ve i’ve
    actually i’ll wake up early in the
    morning and i’ll work out right
    and i’ll have your podcast on while i’m
    listening on speakers
    in the garage yeah and i’ll listen to
    that and think that it’s uh
    that’s how that’s where i make the time
    to do stuff like that and when i’m
    driving too
    yeah but um i’m learning a lot and i’m
    learning a lot i’ve been in the business
    for quite some time
    and i can only imagine uh how everybody
    else
    what they’re getting out of it so thank
    you for doing such a great job in the
    industry
    i really appreciate what you’re doing i
    personally enjoy what you’re doing
    as well i appreciate that and i can’t
    think of anything
    that would pump somebody up more to work
    out in the morning than the podcast i
    just i can’t think right
    usually yeah and all of that like
    yeah i mean laundromat can you please
    say it for me i’m pumped oh i
    am pumped dude here you go but i want to
    hear
    super pumped pup well you’ll hear you
    have to listen to the intro because i
    haven’t recorded it yet and i might just
    be mega pumped i don’t know man
    i just have to see where he goes well
    hey man
    uh you know i cannot say enough good
    things about you
    so i really am pumped that you’re here
    uh on the show and i want
    i know that you have a ton of things to
    share with people that are really going
    to help them out help them
    either get into their first business or
    to optimize you know their laundromat
    business or maybe even to scale their
    laundromat business those are kind of
    the three
    main things that that i’m trying to
    focus on over here to help people
    you know buy laundromat optimize the
    laundromat and scale their laundry
    business so
    um dude before we get into any of this
    vast knowledge and wisdom that you have
    because you have been in the in the
    industry
    for a while now and in a few different
    roles
    before we get into that why don’t you
    tell me
    a little bit about you who is michael
    ambrose
    well first and foremost i i think i’m
    the best at being a father
    everything else after that i just work
    really hard at
    um you are a good dad background is
    um background is i was born and raised
    in um arizona
    and i went to school in tucson i was
    there for general business at the
    university of arizona
    and then um i did this careers project
    you know when you do this careers
    project or actually you know when you
    take an elective right
    you always do the easiest selective so
    you can keep your gpa up right right
    right so i do this uh it’s this careers
    project and it should take it to
    everyone in the class probably took an
    hour and a half and aced it i sat there
    for two days and i was like what in the
    heck do i want to do with my life
    general business where am i going with
    that
    and then so i took some time and i
    figured out i like to travel
    because i’m from yuma so i wanted to get
    out there and just see things
    and um and uh i didn’t really care if i
    made a ton of money
    but i wanted swift and you don’t have to
    you know i didn’t i wanted to travel and
    have fun and the hotel industry was
    very sexy to me at that time so i pretty
    much packed my bags left to university
    arizona went to unlv
    and finished hotel administration school
    so uh
    after i did that i um
    boosted my career in the hotel business
    with i worked for hyatt hotels
    and i started off in monterey i was in
    their management training
    program i was in monterey and then moved
    out to atlanta and then i was in
    knoxville chicago and then i ended up
    way back out here so at first i was
    operations manager
    as assistant levels director
    housekeeping front office manager
    there along when i was in atlanta i had
    this uh
    this room’s executive and she was just
    like i think we’ve got this great
    opportunity for you i
    think and you we’ve all heard that
    before in our lives yeah famous last
    words there yeah
    right and then i was like no way i’m not
    going to laundry i am going to be the
    youngest general manager
    in this organization
    mind the last i was 23 right and i’m 23
    we all think we’re going to conquer the
    world right
    yeah so so um so she basically took me
    by the ear
    i said no thank you she said yes please
    and grabbed me by the air
    drove me in the office threw out all the
    files and said
    here’s your new job you’re the new
    laundry manager right
    that was 1999. i’ve been doing laundry
    ever since
    so then it was uh knoxville chicago back
    out here
    i worked for a chemical company after my
    uh
    stint with the resorts and hotels for
    about ten and a half years so that was
    pretty cool because it was back in the
    house operations
    i was selling chemicals but then it was
    an easier sale because i had been in
    those positions
    and i knew like the i knew that
    the times that a director of
    housekeeping goes through a laundry
    manager so
    i wasn’t this salesperson trying to sell
    them chemicals i had been in their shoes
    at 800 room hotels so it was a nice
    little niche
    um so i was there for about 10 and a
    half years and then i got this
    job with the distributorship here in
    southern california
    and so i’ve come full circle from
    operations to chemicals consulting
    now i sell equipment and then eventually
    that evolutionized into real estate so
    it’s uh
    it’s come full circle you have been here
    i am
    all over well and here you are at the
    pinnacle probably of your whole life i
    would say
    you know on the podcast i hope not i
    hope there’s
    where to go
    this is like the pinnacle of life to
    come on this podcast you’re about to be
    a laundromat
    superstar i mean where is there left to
    go
    um all right maybe you got plenty left
    in the tank and there’s
    plenty higher to get but uh one of the
    things i love i mean thank you for that
    background on who you are and where you
    came from i think that
    i didn’t know a lot of that stuff
    actually and so i think that gives a lot
    of context no i didn’t
    um but one of the things that really
    intrigues me
    about you is you are
    laundromat mike oh my gosh
    can you tell me a little bit about
    laundromat mike who is laundromat mike
    and and what are you all about
    well let’s see so
    i i go into so in sales i go into
    laundromats all day long
    all day long resorts hotels and so forth
    so i get to see
    behind every closed door what nobody
    else gets to see you know in regards to
    the laundromats
    um many owners they go out and they’ll
    see their competition or
    when they’re looking to buy their store
    they’ll go out and check out 10 places
    or 15 places or they’re really
    aggressive guys will go out there and
    see 20 places
    and so so uh i was walking out of a
    place one day and i’m like
    you know what this is i’m blessed to be
    able to go in
    and hear all of the voices and
    see all of the places look at all these
    successes
    learn from the failures learn from the
    successes i’m talking to people who have
    one store
    talking to people have no stores who
    want a store who’ve been searching for
    five years
    i’m talking to people who have ten
    stores um
    so it it resonated like well
    you know i’m not more of a social media
    guy but i become one to some extent
    because
    why not covet all of this that i’m
    seeing
    why don’t i just bring it out there and
    so in laundromat mike it’s uh
    try and put a little spin on it try to
    make it personal basically it’s the life
    of a guy
    who sells laundry equipment for a living
    who travels around and
    tries to show you you know the
    professional side of the business things
    that are great things that
    aren’t working great things that i see
    are really sexy because
    there’s one thing that we’re going to
    get through this whole podcast jordan
    laundry is sexy so yeah
    so if i can bring that into the homes
    and if i can show someone a bulkhead
    that was just recently done or a store
    that was recently done or
    the before and after shots of of of a
    retool
    if that can get into someone’s home and
    they can say you know i like that design
    out there in southern california
    i’m going to apply that out here or i’m
    going to apply that with my own little
    version
    and that makes their laundromat great
    then my job is done
    it’s pretty cool so i have the ability
    to do that
    yeah what i love about that is i mean
    that’s pretty similar to like
    what i’m trying to do too right it’s
    like we’re just trying to
    take people behind the scenes and help
    them learn
    the best ways to to get in this business
    and the best ways to run this business
    when you’re in
    and uh i mean i love you know and
    oh we should mention that the the
    meeting that you’re
    posting this stuff on is on instagram
    right yes
    laundromat mike it’s on facebook too and
    facebook i’m gonna link
    i’m gonna link to those you guys need to
    go follow laundromat mike
    on instagram and on facebook i don’t
    think i follow you on facebook
    uh but i’ll i’ll go follow you on
    facebook too i definitely follow you on
    instagram and i always love seeing your
    post so go follow along or matt mike
    on on instagram too i’ll put a link in
    the description if you’re on youtube or
    in the show notes uh if you’re listening
    on the podcast
    thank you jordan yeah so what’s what i
    mean have you gotten any feedback about
    laundromat mike are you are you
    interacting with people because of it
    i’m assuming you are
    it’s pretty cool it’s it’s it’s been
    great it’s been something like coming
    out of his shell like on this podcast
    and
    yeah it’s been tougher to sit here and
    talk to i think you’re what like three
    billion people
    um are watching your podcast right now
    at least yeah i thought it was like
    you know twenty thousand and then when
    you told me three billion i got a little
    nervous
    yeah but yeah um it’s third of the world
    really yeah i felt like we were going i
    felt like with the super bowl obviously
    so i talked to people and i messaged
    with people all over the country and and
    some out of the country which has been
    pretty cool to see
    people see things resonate within people
    and they actually reach out to you
    um so it’s very difficult
    to give opinions when i’m in southern
    california
    and this market here is on steroids
    talking to someone
    in you know florida or
    somewhere in alabama or anywhere else
    because
    everything changes every quarter of a
    mile in l.a
    demographics change people change
    competition change
    and that’s one of the things that i
    thrive on in this business i love it
    um you wake up every day and nothing’s
    the same
    every single day you have the goals and
    the visions of
    what we know the fundamentals of this
    business that everybody can focus on
    and then outside the fundamentals and
    different markets things
    change um so i i really enjoy that about
    um this business i was recently back in
    um north carolina the wash house the
    willaford family you um oh
    luke williford who will eventually own
    every laundromat in the world i’m
    convinced
    but yes their family is incredible i
    went back out there with a partner of
    mine and um
    it was it was eye-opening um by the way
    luke was a top ten just to let you know
    i think i’m seven yeah
    45th maybe you’re that 46 is what you’re
    46
    being yeah there i go there’s a silver
    lining i thought it was 70.
    no you’re good you’re you’re definitely
    top 50. so
    but i’ll link speaking of luke though
    i’ll link to his podcast episode it’s
    amazing you got to listen to it if you
    haven’t but go ahead continue i watched
    it before i went out there to meet the
    family
    and uh it was impressive um
    back to saying that you know the
    difference in ways changed
    demographically
    i went back there and um they owned 37
    launch rates in north carolina
    um it was an eye-opener because
    everything out there was different
    demographics were different
    layouts of the facilities were different
    the stores were
    different we actually had a room where
    in southern california everything’s
    packed in like how
    tight we pack this in and you know have
    five foot
    in between the aisles i remember post
    speaking of laundry matt mike you posted
    something
    on uh on your instagram of
    behind his dryers and how much room
    there was and i didn’t really realize at
    first that it was actually behind his
    dryers because there’s like
    you could probably fit three rows of
    dryers behind the drive like there was
    so much room back there it was crazy
    so i got some comments there like oh why
    are you doing that you can’t do that out
    there well
    they can do it back there and the thing
    with that building well there was a
    little thing they
    they were there was a the building was
    an awkward shape
    so in order to make everything square in
    the building
    that side of the building behind the
    dryers was a little bit larger than
    usual
    but point in case is there was room
    and it’s important to have access yeah
    yeah
    but so so it’s back there and um
    the layout the rents are different the
    labor is different the competition is
    different
    um and then you go to and then here in
    southern california
    um like i said l.a is i like to market
    on steroids um i live in ventura county
    and ventura county has you know you have
    um san valley is still l.a county which
    is
    um pretty heavily dense but in ventura
    county you have like santa maria
    and then oxnard which are the heavily
    dense areas with laundromats
    um oh that’s uh so so santa maria is in
    uh
    santa barbara county and then you get up
    into slo county
    and it’s like a blast from the past
    there’s nothing going on in slow area
    like la oxnard um santa maria it’s just
    completely different so going back to
    the
    i’ve been able to talk to people all
    around the country and people have
    um liked the personal touch and like the
    business touch and every once in a while
    i make fun of people in a very
    lighthearted way
    just to drive a point in to don’t do
    this in your laundromat
    but it’s been nice hearing from
    everybody around and uh
    being able to go around and see that
    this is a
    very very very unique business and uh
    many times as a distributor people ask
    me a lot of questions
    how much is this door gonna make well
    you know
    i’ve got 20 questions for you to answer
    that question do you know the answer to
    those 20 questions
    yeah well that i mean that leads us
    right
    into i mean you are a distributor and
    you have been for a little while now
    and i i mean i think i talk to people
    all the time
    about you know the importance of having
    a good distributor i did not have a good
    distributor getting in
    uh people have been hearing me whine
    about that for a while now uh
    but uh there’s another dig we met a few
    years ago right you bought
    nothing from me yeah like i don’t even
    think i got a follow-up call thanks for
    driving all the way down here to l.a
    and uh spending your time um like but
    but it’s okay we’ll talk about that here
    bro at that point in my life
    i was bewildered i had no idea
    what i was doing and i was just trying
    to stop the bleeding so i apologize
    but obviously i couldn’t help you at
    that point but here’s
    you know and we’ll talk about this a
    little bit later on that was about five
    years ago that was one of my first year
    in the business we met
    yeah and you had that laundromat which i
    still think you have right i do
    yeah that was that was an experience the
    music and
    the everything going on around your
    laundromat
    was was was entertaining and believe me
    as a distributor
    and as a salesperson it’s all about
    telling people stories right yeah and so
    your laundromat believe it or not for
    that quick little stint that we met
    had a lasting impression yeah well
    probably
    the car wash across the street called
    the wet spot was probably remembered
    more i wasn’t gonna say anything
    no that’s yeah it that’s gone now but
    that was uh that definitely brought a
    little flavor to our little neck of the
    woods over there
    it was definitely a lot of added
    enhanced flavor for that neighborhood
    yeah but i do plan on making it up to
    you and some and we’ll talk about this a
    little bit at the end
    but uh you know you and i have partnered
    with ross dodds who have
    also have been on the podcast and if you
    haven’t listened to his story
    you’ve got to listen to his story and
    i’ll link to that too he’s got a crazy
    entry
    but you know we’re going out now and
    we’re syndicating
    laundromat deals and real estate deals
    and we’re going to be buying equipment
    i’m sure
    you know we’ll probably probably use you
    as our distributor i’m guessing may
    don’t grind me
    don’t mind me well i want to get into
    that okay
    so let’s talk about that what is this
    right because i’m telling people you got
    to have a good relationship with the
    distributor right but
    let’s talk about what a distributor is
    and then i want to get into
    how do you best work with the
    distributor how do you find a good one
    what is a good one supposed to be doing
    all those questions so let’s talk about
    what is a distributor so um this is one
    of the questions that you gave me that
    you were going to ask me
    um i don’t think you’ve had a
    distributor on yet have you i don’t
    think i have no
    date top 10 all of a sudden number one
    number right
    right i love it that’s right um so i
    prepared a little bit so it’s a business
    that works for a specific manufacturer
    and distributes their product
    okay um and there’s a distributor
    does that for all brands for all
    different things from payment systems to
    equipment to
    vending machines all of the above
    so the sales reps are responsible for
    the direction
    of the sales sales path of the product
    each path is different based on
    customers experience and needs
    so they provide information on the
    product and competitive products
    information on the industry they supply
    demographics and give their opinions
    on demographics
    they work with you on the surrounding
    competition
    if you go into a situation where you
    need to re-equip the store
    it would be there to look at the
    demographic surrounding competition
    and help you discover your new equipment
    mix
    your washer and dryer ratios they’ll
    give you
    their uh their experience from
    previous experiences based on the
    demographics and competition
    they help you order and receive um
    they’re
    a guide in the project they’re not doing
    the project physically but they’re
    associated with everybody
    who’s working on your and their goals um
    assistance in any obstacles jeez have
    you had
    any obstacles in development of your
    businesses no not at all no
    no i want to work with you
    yeah right yeah no tons of obstacles all
    along the way
    wish i had somebody like you to help me
    through them well
    it happens no matter who you have it’s
    just the nature of the beast nature of
    the business and
    when you’re doing big projects whether
    it’s 50 000
    or 650 000 things come up because you
    got so many other people involved
    um so so sales reps that work for
    distributors help with the guidance of
    the project and they’re there for you
    as an expert to help guide the process
    to
    its concluding days which is grand
    opening
    um so they assist you with stuff like
    that and then also you know it’s
    it’s it’s interesting when when you’re
    re-equipping a store
    and going and you get this opportunity
    to make it better to do different things
    and you look at everything around you
    um you’re able to help with the psyche
    of the consumer
    um there’s being the stone things being
    the
    the psyche of the the store owner or the
    psyche of
    the customer of the laundromat or both
    the end user um
    where do people go when they walk into a
    place um
    what do you want to see what impression
    do you want to give them
    um right when they immediately walk into
    a store
    um out of order you know it’s funny how
    this isn’t all the time but a majority
    of times you walk into a laundromat and
    if there’s a
    top pockets that’s out of order and a
    stacked dryer
    the five around it like nobody wants to
    touch them like give me away
    that’s out of order it’s sick it has the
    big rhona virus you know
    yeah there’s something wrong with that
    dryer and
    and it’s like guilty by association
    because the other fire driers are
    sitting around and going
    use me use me
    you can’t so stuff like that and then
    walking into a place and
    you know uh the big machines in the
    front you like a lot of people want to
    see big machines when they walk in
    because the first impression is
    wow this place i can wash
    for my whole entire family in one load
    or whatever it may be but
    stuff like that they help you with the
    psyche they help you with installation
    um they’ll either have an installation
    team
    know of an installation team or guide
    your installation team through the
    project
    and then you know they help maximize the
    performance of the equipment
    there’s a lot of networking systems out
    there that allow you to
    maximize the performance of your
    equipment there’s a lot of
    uh different things out there that you
    can do during installation to give your
    equipment ease and for the next 20 plus
    years
    be able to perform well so they help you
    with that stuff too
    they’re supposed to follow up on results
    so
    so that is part of the job description
    of a sales rep
    and good sales reps follow up and build
    a partnership
    because um we should be doing that
    um and then continuing the relationship
    with the customer um
    you should be there before during and
    after
    and after after whether jordan you’re
    buying one store or not
    i should be checking up with you making
    sure everything’s good and let you know
    i still care
    and uh hope one day that you uh
    purchase another store or you sell your
    store so i can help you sell it
    but you keep the relationship going in a
    good forthright and honest way
    that’s it well thank you for kind of i
    mean that’s a thorough breakdown of what
    a distributor is and i think that’s
    awesome because i think a lot of people
    don’t really understand
    i know i didn’t understand what a
    distributor was i thought yeah i go to a
    distributor because they’re the
    gateway to equipment and
    in you are right as a distributor you
    are kind of the gateway to equipment
    but you should be a lot you know all
    these other things that you
    described you know and for me you know
    and you’ll hear people
    uh some of like the top these top owners
    top operators
    the ones who’ve been on the podcast or
    maybe see them in you know the forum
    um or facebook groups or whatever um
    people
    you know top operators say hey have a
    good working relationship
    with a distributor a good distributor
    who’s really going to take care of you
    because they’re going to end up making
    you money and you’ll make them money and
    it’ll be a great you know relationship
    and nobody nobody told me that and
    the you know the distributors that i
    have worked with in the past
    are great people but they didn’t do
    most of these things that you just
    listed off and now
    here i am i’m partnered with you and
    with ross and
    and we’re going out looking for pretty
    big
    laundromat deals now right and
    we’re partnering with investors
    nationwide to go out and buy a bunch of
    laundromats and real estate and
    guess who’s not going to be
    making any money off of that the
    distributors that i’ve worked with in
    the past because they were not these
    things that you’re
    you know that you’re talking about um
    you know and so
    just good human practice is doing these
    things good
    sales practice is doing these things
    that you talked about
    and good business practice is doing
    these things that you talked about
    so so that’s what you know that’s what i
    should be looking for and a good
    distributor
    right i i believe so and i
    try to do all those points effectively
    i can land probably 90 of them but um we
    are
    we are human we do get busy things
    happen but yes that’s what you want in a
    distributor you want someone
    to carry you along the way and and it’s
    it’s
    it’s interesting because so this whole
    stigma of a salesperson
    it’s like i can’t tell you how many
    times that i’ll walk into a place and
    it’s like i’m walking
    through or i’m walking into a wall of
    ice because
    it’s called an icebreaker for a reason
    right you you i have to burn my way
    through this ice because right when i
    immediately walk in they’re like
    sales guy sales guy
    and then so you have to you have to
    develop the relationship early in the
    partnership early you have to get to
    know them
    um what is their background and
    experience in a distributor plays
    a big role if you jordan i just met for
    the first time and
    you were new and i’ve been where i am
    now
    um it would be a path that we would go
    through that would help you along
    more than if i was new um i’d have a lot
    more
    stories a lot more uh let’s say
    projects under my belt that would help
    us move forward
    and and then through all of that i’ve
    made a bunch of mistakes
    that’s how you get to be better in
    everyday job it’s called being human
    so so if you get an experienced person
    you’re stoked
    but if you get a new person it’s darn
    well just as good sometimes
    um when i was brand new um
    it’s so funny so ross right ross
    reno ross he was the first
    person that i did a deal with and i was
    new
    and he was new and i was just glad that
    he
    um he allowed me to move with him
    through his first big project that
    laundromat that burned down it
    was rebuilt oh spoiler alert spoiler if
    you haven’t listened oh yeah
    yeah go listen to it
    so um it was so so he took a chance at
    someone who he
    saw that wanted to learn um had some
    fire in the belly
    was transparent about i’m just in this
    business i’m going to do my best i’m
    going to do all the research i can to
    make this happen for us so he he went on
    a limb and
    took me and here six years later um
    we’re got a company that we’ve got
    together
    and then on the side like i i mean i
    went to
    him with north carolina last week and um
    and then uh he’s got five laundromats
    now and he’s sold one and i’ve been a
    part of
    all of those transactions well not all
    of them he’s gone through
    a couple different distributors early on
    um but
    um but i’ve been a part of that whole
    thing and that’s
    taking a chance with someone who has a
    bunch of knowledge or taking a chance
    with someone
    who’s new they both can serve you well
    but you just have to get to know them
    ask questions be
    transparent be kind um it’s funny when i
    went into the industry
    there’s a lot of uh the stigma of the
    salesperson when i went into the
    industry
    there was a lot of older guys who’ve
    been doing it for like 20 25 years and i
    was like why are you all so crotchety
    why are you all so mean why aren’t you
    over did you do you know anything about
    customer service
    right and and then six years later i’m
    like
    ah wow people can be brutal
    like like everyone thinks that sales
    people are you know
    sales people but the general public can
    be just as brutal and salespeople
    that um many times you know it forms the
    salesperson to be a little bit
    non-customer service oriented um
    can you can you tell us a little bit
    more like from the distributor
    side about that because i think that’s
    important to understand that side of it
    for uh you know for how to work with
    well with a distributor right we need to
    understand what you guys go through
    as sales people um you know can you take
    us through maybe like
    from that initial conversation and
    through
    you know your sales path a little bit
    and what that’s like for you as a
    distributor um
    as far as how uh like what a distributor
    looks for an
    an individual no no just or no just like
    along with a uh sales how to make the
    best partnership
    with the distributor well i i just want
    you to talk a little bit about
    i mean you said like it could be like
    people can be brutal
    like to you right so what do you mean by
    that i guess
    okay okay so a lot of times it’s just
    the initial conversation it’s like
    walking into the room all happy and
    you’re excited to be there and
    you want to make some money you want to
    help people you want to
    take on this new project which is going
    to be different than the last 300 you
    had
    and you’re going to lose something from
    this project and you immediately walk in
    and it’s like
    speak to the hands you know you have to
    break the ice
    um so you have to break the ice you have
    to get to know them um
    i think you can just feel that they
    automatically think that you’re not
    trustworthy a lot of times um so i
    generally take the time to get to know
    them a bit and that’s the sales person’s
    job
    um it’s not the customer’s job the
    consumer’s job to
    to try and get to know the sales person
    many times in my belief i think it takes
    two parties
    but i try and get to know their long and
    short-term goals so i can
    help them with you know their future um
    uh how and why they got into the
    business
    a little bit about their family
    laundromat industry is a personal
    business
    it’s okay to know about people and not
    be so corporate
    in this personal business that we’re
    doing so you know a lot of times you got
    to break the ice but then after that
    people get to know and see each other a
    bit
    um the trust and the credibility gets
    starts to formulate
    then um then bam there it is um
    so so that’s that’s the goal is just to
    get to know each other
    know each other’s experience and know
    each other’s directions and goals
    and then availability i mean the
    customer should always be like okay does
    he answer his phone is he responsive
    um is is he following up with what he
    said or she said
    um those are those are big big things um
    follow-up is is key to a good
    sales rep that works for a
    distributorship um
    it’s it’s funny though i was talking
    about how how it can be
    pretty tough i’ve had a um a few
    circumstances where
    you know you jump through hoops you’re
    on fire you invest all your time put
    hours of time
    and then they like ghost you or do you
    like
    seriously i kid you not i spent so much
    time
    with this these wonderful people like i
    i i kind of got personal i kind of had a
    little heart for him you know and
    i thought the deal was going to go
    through and it was a couple store deal
    and
    and i like i went to their house i
    traveled afar to see this place which
    was
    completely out of my jurisdiction right
    and i got excited and that’s sometimes
    what you know it’s the passion
    that you want your distributor to have
    and then
    when it all came down to it they were
    price driven and i got one of these
    uh we’ve decided to go elsewhere like on
    a text i was like next breakup
    i got a text breakup i’ll never forget
    that i still think about it all the time
    it’s like uh
    um and then i’ve called back several
    times i’ve emailed
    and nothing no nothing but a but it’s
    okay
    and um it’s it’s fine and i would
    the moment that they called me up to do
    business
    i’m gonna be just as excited as um i was
    upset that they didn’t call me and tell
    me no
    because we can take the answer no you
    know
    a lot of times in life you win by
    default
    um i’ll win by default you go with
    someone else and they don’t do a good
    job and you come back to me because of a
    price now you know why
    you know i had a great product and i
    brought value to the table
    um so so that’s that’s one of those
    things at the end of the day just be
    honest with your time
    and their time um and remember the best
    gift that you can give someone is what
    jordan time man yeah so
    so but there’s the other side too
    well yeah and well before we get to the
    other side i mean i i think it’s a good
    point for us as owners to keep in mind
    that
    i mean it’s it’s like a real estate
    agent right like you don’t get paid
    you know unless you make a sale so if
    you’re investing all this time
    energy effort that’s time you could be
    spending on something else
    and you know if you break up with
    a distributor who’s been pouring a lot
    into you a lot of time energy effort
    into you
    and you break up over text and then
    ghost them from there
    like they get nothing out of that right
    that’s
    that’s tough i mean it’s not it’s not
    something to base
    your business decisions off of um but
    uh you said something that was kind of
    interesting to me and i um
    there’s actually dave men’s has a really
    good youtube video and all
    if you don’t know dave mann’s laundry
    matt miller the distributor guy right he
    he says get good relationship with your
    distributor right yeah he says have a
    good relationship with your distributor
    and he has a video that he says price
    versus value and you mentioned that
    they were price driven and not
    value driven which i think is the
    implication of what
    you were going for there and i’ll link
    to that video too because it’s a really
    good one
    but uh price price is
    a significant factor obviously you know
    when you’re
    investing money in a business but it’s
    not the only factor so there there’s
    more to factor into that
    and i would argue with somebody who was
    price driven
    in my first retool uh and
    and got the best price that i could
    and uh but that’s all i got
    right like as soon as those machines
    were in i
    did not see at my distributor again i
    didn’t get any help
    from them and i needed it right because
    i was
    struggling after even after my retool so
    uh yeah so i just wanted to point that
    out that you know price is a huge factor
    but it’s not
    the only factor so but tell us about the
    flip side i mean
    i know you i’m sure you have plenty of
    horror stories about you know customers
    who’s
    you know who’ve given you the shaft
    people still say that
    does it say that no it’s probably not
    close i think it’s more of a
    beer conversation with your buddies
    conversation like when you say the shaft
    okay you got that shaft yeah but anyways
    uh so tell me about the flip side of
    that are there some good
    you know stories that you have go back
    to the other side real quick so
    um the true colors of someone always
    shows up in
    certain times and um i i would say
    i said i’ve won by default quite a few
    times
    like i’ll lose a deal and then they’ll
    go out there
    and then they’ll come back like a year
    later and be like hey you know i really
    appreciate you following up for last
    year and like you just sucked it up and
    you’re like
    oh yeah i can lose and this person was
    great and i want to do business with
    them down the road and
    you put it to the side and you carry on
    like
    i don’t know if a lot of other sales
    people do that i’ll continue to follow
    up if i lose a deal
    and um just if i see something in
    someone that i i want to work with them
    i will continue to do so and and so uh
    it’s it’s
    it’s an industry where you you have to
    be able to forgive and not take things
    personally
    um and you don’t ever know what people
    are going through so
    or what other factors were considered in
    that no
    to you or that yes to you so you just
    i mean at the end of the day you just
    gotta shake it off
    and um know that you would you
    you you will do business with them again
    because
    that’s what we do and there’s a few
    times that i’ve had
    that come back to me and right now i’ve
    got some amazing
    partners that i work with that were
    because of that story so you just
    never say no be tenacious and and don’t
    take anything personal and
    when they come back just do a better job
    so you they never go anywhere
    else again yeah and i like that attitude
    it kind of puts it
    back on you right like you can’t control
    what other people
    do you can only control your own thing
    and i i kind of have this funny
    thing that uh you know if somebody like
    forgets my name or something
    you know i said hey you don’t feel bad
    about forgetting my name like no big
    deal it just means
    i didn’t do anything memorable enough
    remember my name right like
    that’s on me not on you for not
    remembering my name right but it’s kind
    of a similar concept right where you’re
    like
    okay well i’m just gonna i’m gonna take
    it up a level
    you know if if they come back around and
    you know it’s on me
    they they make their own decisions but
    all you can control is you and what you
    do so
    i like that absolutely get knocked down
    get back up and be better
    right and take accountability for
    obviously i didn’t do
    a good enough job to get their business
    whether it was price or whether it was
    whatever reason it was whatever yeah you
    you take that back the next time and you
    just do better
    and and you know what i can’t wait that
    they come back i’m gonna knock it out
    apart that’s right
    that’s right um the other side though i
    mean
    is uh people are cool people are great
    people are nice people are kind um not
    saying that what we were just talking
    about they’re not
    it’s just we’re talking about how oh
    sales is tough
    and you come across a lot of people and
    you give your time and your efforts so
    so uh i’ve got a customer that uh i
    i swear i poured in probably more time
    than
    um than the last scenario i was telling
    you about
    and at the end of the deal i walked away
    with uh
    absolutely zero and this guy was just
    like man we’ve done a lot of business
    together you’ve helped me out a lot and
    then um
    i don’t know if i don’t know if i should
    say this but
    he delivered a kegerator to my house
    that’s so awesome i was like what is
    this about he’s just like you put in a
    lot of work
    you did a lot of time i see what you did
    you didn’t get anything out of it i know
    you like ipas
    here’s a kegerator that’s a little
    awesome
    that’s so so awesome so and then my best
    story is and
    this has only happened once it will
    probably only happen once in my lifetime
    um i was i did another great partner
    that i have it started off as business
    and now we’re just friends and know each
    other’s family and everything like that
    he comes up to me one day he’s like
    michael
    how are you doing on this deal
    what what do you mean how am i doing
    we’re doing a great job that’s how we’re
    doing
    how did it become me instead of us right
    and he’s just like are you getting paid
    all right i’m like looking at him like i
    have no idea where he’s going with this
    i’m like yeah yeah i’m i’m okay
    and then he goes i just want you to know
    that
    we’ve done a lot of work together and i
    see how
    what we’ve done together you’re gonna
    you’ve just helped us make money for the
    next 20 plus years
    and i know that you get a one-time
    commission
    i just want to make sure that when you
    walk away from this deal
    that you’re happy and can’t wait to work
    do business with us again
    i’m like i’m not gonna
    the deal doesn’t end we’ve gotta forever
    deal with you like that like
    like who does that and when does that
    happen and and that’s kind of how they
    run their whole life which is really
    cool
    and they are um uh super
    successful at what they do and they’re a
    it’s great to work with them so well
    it’s one of those things where it’s like
    uh you know are they like that because
    they’re super successful
    and people would say that right but
    there’s probably a pretty good argument
    that says no they’re super successful
    because they’re like that
    right like they take care of the people
    and they see it as
    they see the value in what you’re doing
    and they view it as a
    partnership right and they appreciate
    that
    you know not just in word but also
    indeed and that’s
    i would say that’s that’s pretty key to
    success
    my view i’ve told that story quite a bit
    because it’s
    a remarkable story and nobody has ever
    been like yeah i have the same story
    so so i think i found one in a million
    human being who uh
    who has that approach and that approach
    isn’t with me it’s the way it approaches
    everything which is pretty cool
    yeah yeah pretty cool okay so
    i mean thank you for walking us through
    that too and like you know how to how to
    think about your relationship with your
    distributor how to work with the
    distributor
    um i think it’s super valuable you know
    like you’ve been saying
    like you know some of these other top
    operators are saying like it’s really
    important to
    you know have a good relationship with
    your distributor um
    but we’ve never really at least on this
    podcast never really broken down
    what does that mean how do you how do
    you even have a good relationship with
    your broker
    and how do you know if you’re working
    with a good broker or not right and you
    broke down those two things
    beautifully but i got a question for you
    uh because you’ve been in this game for
    a little while and
    as far as i know unless something’s
    happened in the last few days
    you don’t own a laundromat yourself so
    what’s the deal dude
    i mean your laundromat mike man you got
    to get a laundromat here
    well and aside from you know here’s the
    thing like
    i know we’re going out we’re putting
    together deals right now for
    you know our syndication and stuff like
    that so i know that but i’m just curious
    are you planning on getting any
    yourself well let’s just say that i’ve
    had a few
    curveballs thrown at me over the years
    and um
    and i’m getting close it’s been on my
    mind since day one
    and i actually had a little deal just
    fall out in a close by uh
    area which is unfortunate um
    but um yes it’s going to happen
    i can’t wait for it to happen it’s got
    to be the right deal the right location
    the right lease the rights uh
    the store like right now i can’t take on
    a
    3500 square foot store and manage it and
    do
    you know my job the best that i can and
    do the real estate side i need something
    a little bit smaller and that’s kind of
    hard to find that’s within 30 minutes
    with a good lease
    in an area that i can manage from afar
    so uh the time is closed i hope and
    that’s one thing i would
    love i mean just for everybody to
    understand that you got to have patience
    in this job
    or not in this job but in this in this
    field if you’re looking for a laundromat
    sometimes it takes two or three years or
    whatever it may be
    and uh the other day i was talking about
    so my cpa
    um is started in laundry then became my
    cpa now
    it’s been a couple years that we’ve
    known each other and called me the other
    days like michael i still don’t have a
    laundromat we do all this business we
    talk all the time and i’m like
    shaq let me tell you there’s got to be
    the right laundromat for you you have
    family you have a job you have all kinds
    of things going on
    i’m not going to just find you any
    laundromat i’m going to find you a
    laundromat that you can have life
    balance
    and still make some money however money
    that is i don’t know because
    how much time do you have to give as
    often times
    directs how much money you’re going to
    make um to some degree unless you have
    someone to manage that for you and if
    you have someone to manage that for you
    that cuts the profit
    so anyways it it it takes time
    to find the right place for you and i
    would never just jump into something
    like i’ve been around
    six years looking for a laundromat most
    of those years
    i haven’t been able to do so but now i’m
    able to do so
    and i’ll spend another two finding the
    right laundromat if that’s what it takes
    to do something that accustoms my
    lifestyle and allows me to be effective
    at jobs number one and number two
    and then um and jobs number one and
    number two and number three
    jumps one is be a good dad jobs two is
    distributorship
    and job three is the real estate so um
    they have to six
    it’s a sequential order and uh i’m not
    gonna lose all or take away from the
    other two
    and not be successful for job number
    four yeah
    i like that and i like i mean kind of
    what you’re saying is you gotta find
    the laundromat that fits your situation
    right whether it’s you your cpa somebody
    listening right now who’s maybe looking
    to buy
    a laundromat you know you not all
    laundromats fit
    you know where you’re at in life either
    location
    or business model wise or
    even even i mean there’s so many
    variables right condition of the story
    like there’s so many different variables
    that you need to find the right fit
    for your goal right and you’re going to
    buy a different laundromat if your goal
    is to
    is to retire from your you know from the
    rat race from your nine to five job
    you know you’re probably gonna buy a
    different laundromat than you would if
    you had excess cash and you wanted to
    you know just make some cash flow on the
    side you know and if that’s the case for
    you then you probably just want to
    invest with us
    right i don’t know um yeah
    but were you placed into the laundromat
    that balanced
    that that was accustomed to your life or
    were you placed into a laundromat
    i was placed into a laundromat for sure
    yeah that’s nine out of ten people
    from my experience maybe eight out of
    ten um
    but so so that’s why you’re here though
    which is the coolest thing ever
    without that experience there would be
    no laundromat resource
    yeah yeah right so you’re here for a
    reason and sometimes a lot of the
    crossroads that we face in life which
    are
    the trials and tribulations of life mark
    rocket us
    into other aspects of our life that
    benefit other people which is
    the beautiful thing about this yeah okay
    i’m done making fun of you for not
    having a laundromat yet i just
    needed to get a little jab jab in there
    and
    oh i was you just didn’t know it no i’m
    just kidding
    uh well i mean one of the things one of
    the reasons i was really excited i mean
    there’s a lot of reasons to be honest
    that i’ve
    been really excited to have you on on
    the podcast but one of the big reasons
    that i’ve been really excited to have
    you on is because i know
    you’re laundromat mike right like you’re
    in all these laundromats you are talking
    to all these different owners
    and you’re seeing uh you’re seeing what
    works
    what doesn’t work what are successful
    owners doing versus
    owners that are struggling more and i’m
    i’m curious if you would just give us a
    little
    maybe even as your as your secret sauce
    maybe give us a little bit of what
    you’re seeing what what are
    successful owners doing consistently
    that you know maybe struggling owners
    aren’t doing
    [Music]
    great question um there’s quite a few
    things and
    and you’re right i get to see it and
    years later there’s our consistencies
    with
    people who have done with i can take
    the 10 most successful laundromat owners
    that i know
    and each one of the things that i’m
    already saying it’s consistent within
    all of them um maybe some are
    stronger at other areas than others but
    they’re they’re they’re all doing it
    um one of the biggest thing is just
    focus on the fundamentals
    um that’s something that the willaford
    family does really well in north
    carolina they just keep everything so
    simple
    and you know why they have to it’s
    because they have 37 lives
    yeah you can’t make a complex and have
    37 and manage them
    effectively ross and i spent uh
    uh a day with uh lee and luke and i
    swear those guys answered their phone
    maybe three times
    yeah and spent ten minutes on the phone
    out of an entire day
    that ross and i were with them and that
    just shows that a couple things that
    they’re
    effective owners and um
    they’ve got everything aligned and
    organized correctly
    and it shows that they’re keeping it
    simple
    and focusing on the fundamentals um so
    clean bright and safe everybody always
    hears clean bright and safe
    um a good friend of mine is always
    says you know what i want my wife my
    grandma and my kids to go there at nine
    o’clock at night if the answer is yes
    it’s clean bright and safe and you’re
    comfortable having
    your family go there in the evening so
    if it’s not that way
    try and do the best you can to make
    people comfortable people want to go
    where they’re
    welcome where people know their names
    people want to go
    where um they feel safe so
    focus on the fundamentals and keep it
    simple you want to treat your place like
    you want others to treat it and they
    will do so
    um my first year
    in working for this distributor i uh i
    evaluated over 400 laundromats in
    southern california
    um have them in a book a binder just
    just i evaluated 400 laundromats
    and one of the things that i saw is i
    could go into some of the roughest areas
    in southern california
    and i could walk into a really nice
    place
    and everybody keeps it nice i can go
    into
    the bathroom of a really rough area in
    southern california
    and the ownership takes pride in keeping
    everything immaculate
    i walk into that bathroom and um
    it’s pristine there’s no writing on the
    wall there’s no junk there’s no trash
    everybody’s throwing the trash in the
    basket
    um and going the opposite direction
    i could walk into a place because i
    cover uh santa barbara county too
    so i could walk into like a place in
    santa barbara i’m just pulling out out
    of my head because everybody knows santa
    barbara is absolutely gorgeous
    i could go in a laundromat in santa
    barbara yeah right it’s
    so beautiful i know i could i could go
    into a laundromat in santa barbara where
    the owner
    doesn’t see any of the things that i was
    just talking about and what what
    what’s going on there there’s writing on
    the walls or spray paints there’s
    etchings in the uh
    in the mirror you know the owner’s not
    even turning the water on
    and then that’s true right because they
    don’t want people to trash and take
    basic showers
    so how you manage that um
    uh treats your place like you want
    others to treat it and they will do so
    um is that 100 of the time no
    but don’t let those few people who don’t
    do it ruin it for everybody it’s kind of
    like the dog that uh
    that uh poops in the park and this is
    kind of a crazy
    but but like i remember going to dog
    parks all the time right
    and then all of a sudden you couldn’t go
    to dog parks because there’s three
    people who
    go there every day three times a day
    that don’t pick up after their dog right
    you can’t kill the dog park because
    there’s three people
    that abuse the the policy
    terrible example however that’s the
    first thing that popped in my mind
    that terrible because i’ve had not dogs
    but humans
    do that in my laundromat so it’s a
    relevant example
    so what are you gonna do just just quit
    your laundromat because someone pooped
    on the floor
    maybe i don’t know no no i mean you
    you know he but it is difficult like i
    will say
    like you are absolutely right but
    especially early on in
    and i would say the key to that like to
    you know if you take over a laundromat
    that’s like that or if you let your
    laundromat go and it gets like that to
    where people are
    abusing it basically i will say and i’ll
    say this from experience that it
    takes a long time of concerted
    effort to turn that tide right you have
    to stay on top of things
    you have to you know be quick to
    fix things be quick to clean up things
    and even if you’ve let things go for a
    little while it
    is salvageable right but you have to
    make that mental shift that you’re going
    to be on top of things
    um and you know when i’ve had problems
    with
    um like homeless people or things like
    that
    it’s the times where i’ve just been busy
    or i’ve been tired or whatever and i
    haven’t stayed on top of it right
    but if you stay on top of those issues
    that’s when you can jump into this
    category where you’re
    taking care of your place you’re
    treating it the way you want others to
    treat it
    right and that message does come through
    so when you’ve been consistent with that
    and assertive
    and making sure that you’re you’re doing
    what we’re talking about
    um how do things change for your
    customers um did more people
    come in do more kids come in um
    yeah how’s that work yeah yeah that’s
    exactly and people notice right people
    notice
    um pretty pretty quickly when
    when the owner decides or a new owner
    comes in or whatever
    decides that you’re going to take care
    of your store and that you’re going to
    you know because the neighborhood talks
    right and they you know they’re not dumb
    they see when there’s homeless people
    hanging out and they don’t want to be
    there
    like going back to the clean bright safe
    that whole safety thing even if
    you know even if somebody’s just kind of
    dingy and just hanging out
    and they’re not really a threat to
    anybody you know people still don’t feel
    safe there right and so you know as soon
    as you’re on top of that
    and uh people people know that you care
    i mean first of all it shows people that
    you care about their community
    and their laundromat um as soon as they
    know that you care
    then not only will they come back and
    start bringing kids and stuff but
    they’ll also kind of rally to your aid
    right and i’ve seen that a lot where you
    know customers will
    uh will will throw people out of
    the laundromat you know if i’m not there
    and they’re there and and somebody
    like customers will throw them out
    themselves because
    you know you’ve been able to that’s
    their space their place yeah
    yeah and they want to keep it that way
    so you’re right
    do you have have you ever had someone
    thank you
    oh my yeah oh man well and
    to be honest it wasn’t too difficult to
    get that thinking coming from where it
    was originally like it was
    it was so bad dude it was so bad but
    yeah absolutely absolutely and how cool
    is that that just gives you like okay
    i’m doing this and
    that that’s really cool when you have
    your customers come and thank you for
    giving them security
    a place to come and do their clothes all
    over the above
    so so but my next my next thing is um
    with successful laundromators and the
    consistency that i see
    is there’s owners that truly enjoy
    serving their communities um
    [Music]
    it’s it’s it’s evident it’s true it’s
    there the people that care most about
    their communities who have a laundromat
    they actually excel it’s
    how that works i don’t know uh but it
    but it does
    um you know i i have there’s there’s a
    couple in la um and
    what they’ll do is all day saturday
    they’ll prepare um
    a meal so like it’s i mean in this
    laundromat’s like 7 000 square foot
    in la and they’ll prepare a meal
    have all the fixin’s good ends and the
    all this all the spreads and every
    sunday
    it’s like this community barbecue well
    it’s not a barbecue everything’s
    prepared
    so it’s this community brunch and um
    this laundromat i wouldn’t say it was in
    distress because of its location
    it’s always going to do good i would
    imagine but this owner came in and he
    just said hey i want to take care of the
    community
    i want to serve people i want to make
    people happy i want to make sure that
    they come to a place where
    they feel welcomed and the place is
    booming
    um not because of the brunch but because
    of the heart behind the owner who
    is serving the community and that’s one
    thing that’s consistent i mean
    there’s owners who come in on a hot day
    and they’ll
    hand out waters with their kids um
    there’s owners that will come in and
    go to the party city and then get a
    bunch of helium and
    go in there and you know do balloons for
    the kids throughout the weekend
    you have kids right i do how cool is a
    balloon to a kid
    it’s about the same as it is to me super
    cool
    me too
    so diving into the community showing
    that you
    personally care um is one of the
    consistencies
    um so another thing is is
    price leaders i had a customer the other
    day call me talk to me about pricing
    mike what are you talking about right
    what do you think i should do
    like well tell me once again it’s one of
    those questions where i have
    it’s a question and i answer it with ten
    more questions right but he had told me
    and raised his prices in eight years
    i’m like tell me what’s happening
    economically in the last eight years
    let’s talk about all the hardships let’s
    talk about all the changes let’s talk
    about all the natural disasters
    let’s talk about the virus you know
    there’s a whole list of things
    all of that has escalated the cost of
    living
    in my area i mean a two by four is what
    uh three or four or five times that what
    it used to be
    six eight months ago a two by four
    so um everything’s
    everything’s cost more than it did eight
    years ago so raise your prices
    so price leaders are not afraid to raise
    their pricing and they do it accordingly
    um to what they’re doing
    um there’s another consistency within
    these people
    these people actually aren’t afraid to
    raise their crisis
    but they also coincidentally they all
    keep their places clean
    and reinvest back into the business
    so i would question yourself if you’re
    actually
    you know looking to raise prices and do
    my customers deserve a price
    price increase now do they deserve it
    based on
    do they deserve to pay more or do they
    deserve
    a quarter or 50 cents more based on
    what you’re supplying them if you can
    answer yes then increase it and you’re
    not going to lose the right people the
    wrong people
    if at all you’re gonna probably maybe
    lose a person or two
    just as all about that and you know
    that’s
    sad but you know keep your place
    reinvest in it don’t be afraid to raise
    prices and then warrant the price
    increase
    not by not doing anything not by letting
    everything go ragged not by security not
    by hearing thank yous from your
    customers
    raise your prices because you’re doing
    the right thing for your people and it
    warrants the price increase
    um but don’t be afraid oh another thing
    is uh
    this is i’m sure you’ll have fun with
    this one
    keep good records most of the successful
    laundromat owners that i know
    all have immaculate records but the myth
    is it’s like oh yeah it’s a crash
    business you can do anything you want
    yeah you can do anything you want to you
    try and sell it business that you
    haven’t been recording on
    good luck finding that you know that
    makes it hard for the broker and it
    makes it shady
    and it’s it’s not good so keep good
    records i mean
    it’s all about being straightforward
    honest forthright and
    doing the right thing this is a business
    which allows people to
    um manipulate numbers so um
    with that being said all of the owners
    that i know
    are consistent in their recordkeeping
    well and i think a lot of what one of
    the things i like about this business is
    the people who are doing well in this
    business who are running
    the business correctly and doing it well
    don’t don’t need to have shady
    accounting
    practices right like you just don’t you
    don’t need to because one you’re making
    money
    and two you’re you’re benefiting from
    your business is
    you know increasing in value because you
    know they’re based on how much money
    you’re making right so if you’re making
    more money it’s going to be more
    valuable
    and they’re getting tax breaks because
    they’re running their business smartly
    by retooling or you know whatever the
    case may be
    i’m running expenses through the
    business but they’re getting tax
    advantages they’re building equity and
    they’re making income
    and so they don’t need to have shady
    practices
    write-offs tax advantages depreciable
    assets
    good records strong sell strong business
    it all aligns together when someone
    spends more time thinking about how
    they’re not gonna how they’re gonna
    cheat the system
    they spend more time doing that than
    making money and then that whole
    attitude many times is what i’ve seen
    it’s not true in all circumstances but
    what i’ve seen is that person ends up
    not doing so well in other parts of
    their business
    whereas the person is record-tripping
    he’s focused on the customer he’s
    focused on a team
    keeping it clean bright and safe he’s
    not worrying about if his numbers are
    going to mash out or not when he goes to
    sell his store
    and you know what when he goes to sell a
    store he’s going to sell it for a lot
    more because there’s no bs
    keep good records well one of the things
    we had andrew cunningham on and
    uh i know you know andrew too he’s
    awesome and people love that episode for
    good reason but one of the things he
    talks about
    is uh you know first of all
    you should be keeping good records from
    day one
    um and uh and number two
    is you know when you don’t keep good
    records or you keep two sets of books
    or you tell the irs one thing and you
    tell a potential buyer another thing
    those kinds of things
    those all erode trust right
    and eroded trust decreases value
    i mean that’s you know and in it slows
    things down
    all all the negative things when you’re
    trying to sell your laundromat
    um you know when you when you don’t have
    good records or you have
    two sets of records or inaccurate
    records
    all those things you see that all in all
    your consulting
    i see it all the time you know well both
    from the buyer side
    and and the seller side and you know it
    can be tricky if
    you know if a seller has not kept good
    records and maybe they’re not even being
    shady they just you have a transaction
    right now where
    you know they’re just not super savvy
    the sellers just aren’t super savvy
    business people and they had
    uh they didn’t even have like they had a
    handwritten
    piece of paper that said here’s what we
    made in
    january here’s what we made in february
    and that was it was just a handwritten
    one line didn’t break it down or
    anything and it was like okay well
    man that makes things really difficult
    to know what’s going on with this
    business
    right like yeah but you’re right there
    are a lot of people out there who
    they just don’t keep good records and
    it’s not because they don’t want to it’s
    just because they’re busy with
    it’s supplemental income so their heads
    in 15 different directions and so forth
    and and they’re making money right right
    they’re making money and then if you’re
    making money then why keep records i’m
    making money
    yeah it’s just hard to bring credibility
    to that if you’re trying to sell the
    place
    totally um another thing is
    just have to stay ahead of the
    competition you have to do what they’re
    doing better
    and then some um
    so i continue to invest in the business
    and the interest of the customers in the
    competition um
    your your investment should be done
    accordingly to your customers
    and to the competition
    yeah well can you can you talk a little
    bit of
    more about that like staying ahead i
    mean i think that’s
    huge like do what your competition is is
    uh you know you gotta do what your
    competition is doing but better and you
    know and then some
    uh can you talk a little bit more about
    that like what do you
    what are you seeing um a lot of times
    when people are just making money
    they spend it in other places they
    shouldn’t and when you invest in
    competition um you’re able to bring more
    value to the customer so forget about
    your
    jacuzzi tubs your nice rooms and going
    out to eat seven nights a week
    um a jacuzzi tub in the laundromat
    because that would be awesome actually i
    mean that would probably be
    filthy jacuzzi tub in the laundromat no
    jacuzzi tubs at home like you’re making
    money so you just go and spend it on all
    kinds of other things
    all right all right all right that was
    good that was good you’re messing with
    me i like that
    so so you want to bring more value to
    the customer and
    you know invest in the kids interests
    the parents interest
    can you do two birds with one stone
    theory can i get my laundry done
    and get some work done can i get my
    laundry done and
    enjoy time reading to my kids can i get
    my laundry done and
    enjoy some peace and quiet while my kids
    are in the kids corner
    um i have a customer in uh santa maria
    same guy who said hey
    uh are you making enough money on this
    so he’s got like this
    it’s like a 7 000 square foot laundry
    now right now
    and um and he’s in a very competitive
    market when he first got i was like why
    are you doing this
    like there’s like 30 laundromats within
    a mile from you
    you’ve got this is impressive i want to
    see how this works out
    these guys are just awesome right it’s
    probably why you know there’s so much
    exactly
    the way they carry themselves so um
    they’ve got this
    it’s it’s like better than a mcdonald’s
    or a chick-fil-a playground
    inside their um laundromat and the
    beautiful thing about it is it’s the two
    birds one stone can i
    get my laundry done have my kids play
    and
    not hear screaming kids so there’s this
    three birds one stone
    and so um excuse me we have a trash guy
    going by
    can’t hear them you’re good so um so
    at this laundromat you go from the
    washer
    to the dryer and you go from the dryer
    to the folding table
    but this folding table is looking
    at the kids area and the kids area is
    this big
    huge glass enclosure so how brilliant
    was that let’s go to laundromat
    i’m gonna get my stuff done the kids can
    play
    and i don’t have to hear them but i can
    watch them
    yeah and then if you not a big if you’re
    done with kids
    and you don’t have kids and you don’t
    want to go to the pool with all the kids
    are and you don’t want to go to the
    laundromat
    where all the kids are you can still go
    to this laundromat because all the kids
    are an enclosure
    plane and you can’t hear them so they’ve
    invested in a heavily competitive area
    with the kids interest and the parent
    centers at the same time so
    that’s where i say invest in uh the
    competition and doing what your
    competition is doing
    and doing it better than they’re doing
    it um so yeah that’s it
    i think that’s awesome i think it’s a
    thing man i mean that’s a pretty cool is
    that that laundromat is that
    in southern california yeah it’s
    actually in santa maria
    it’s it’s it’s an eyepiece yeah that’s
    about some
    i’ve had a bunch of posts on that over
    the last year on uh the whole
    laundromat mic thing yeah that’s pretty
    cool i mean i really like that idea and
    you know i you know obviously like
    mcdonald’s or whatever they’ve
    really thrived you know be partly
    because of that model that they have
    um and it’s tough to do with a
    laundromat because you got to have
    space right like that’s not technically
    money making
    space right but that’s an incentive that
    i mean that’s huge
    you know that’s to dedicate space like
    that to a play area
    where you know kids can play get their
    energy out you know i
    i feel i’ve done this before myself i
    brought my kids you know when i had to
    go to the laundromat maybe i was
    cleaning up or whatever
    you know i had to bring my kids along
    and they’re trying to entertain
    themselves so they’re climbing on stuff
    or
    messing with the carts or whatever you
    know and people are doing this
    trying to figure out what to do with
    their kids all the time and
    uh having something like that is that’s
    like a
    that’s like a deal maker they’re killing
    it
    they’re doing so well because of that
    yeah
    not because of that but yeah that’s got
    to be a big part of it and
    you know it takes a certain kind of
    person to do
    that uh for their laundry right like
    they’re going to be taking care of their
    business if they’re going to be
    investing that much money but also space
    for something like that it’s it’s
    it’s pretty neat to it’s the greatest
    thing about my job is i get to
    see all of this it’s fun and i’m
    constantly being educated and
    and just when i think i know something i
    realize i don’t and i learn more it’s
    pretty cool
    yeah um the last last but definitely not
    least uh
    one of the consistencies i see in
    successful laundromat owners
    um they’re not afraid to pay the extra
    buck for the right product or the right
    service i’m talking
    um the products whether it’s equipment
    card systems
    or any any vendor item that serves the
    bottom line
    um they’re not afraid to pay the extra
    buck
    um installers they pay people to do it
    the right way
    they make sure the right people are
    using the right materials to do the job
    the right way
    again the right people it’s funny it’s
    it’s kind of
    the vicious cycle of default which we
    were which i was talking about earlier
    like oh
    i’ll take it next time you come around i
    um i know
    multiple owners who have gone through
    everyone i know who is a installer
    in southern california and they always
    go back to the one that ends up being a
    little bit more pricey who does the best
    job
    so winning by default in that area is
    good so just find the person
    find the support team you need initially
    a bed don’t
    don’t step over quarters to pick up
    nickels
    do your investment it’s long term it’s
    depreciable in most circumstances
    and you’re able to get the right people
    right off the bat
    without having the next three or four
    projects
    you’re pulling your hair out because uh
    you wish that you’re with a guy who
    happens to be a little bit more pricey
    you know
    maybe a little bit more slow but it
    works
    um the same thing for contractors same
    thing for contractors as i said for
    installers
    um what installers or contractors are
    many times installers at the same time
    sometimes they’re separated down here in
    southern california um
    and then um repair services
    uh andy was big on repair services i
    think
    um he uh you pay them right away
    you tell them thank you you respect
    what they’re doing they have a tough job
    driving around
    working on equipment and they’re
    innovated many times more than we are
    so find that good repair guy he may cost
    a little bit extra
    but he’s gonna show up on time and when
    you pay him when he leaves
    or when you buy him lunch or her lunch
    when they uh
    when they’re there and when you give him
    a sincere thank you
    um i guarantee you when you call them
    jordan
    on friday at 5 p.m and they’re an hour
    away
    um and you actually need them like need
    them need them
    they’re going to be there a lot sooner
    than if you didn’t pay them on
    time and say thank you and and buying
    lunch every once in a while
    it just makes sense so um building a
    support team
    is another consistency these these
    owners find the right people to do the
    right job
    they typically pay more for the job to
    get done um
    and somehow um that just makes them part
    of that’s just another one of the things
    that i see consistent within owners
    yeah i you know invest in the people
    that
    are investing you know in your business
    with you you know like the repair people
    the contractors like
    invest in them and they’re going to take
    care of you i love that um okay
    i wanna just had similar experiences
    with your uh laundromats
    have you have you had to go have i had
    to win by default
    uh well i
    yeah i’ve struggled man i mean and part
    of it is got your team now
    kind of so well part of it is this like
    this is why i think
    this this is like a very good lesson for
    everybody like learn this from me right
    like
    i didn’t know what i was doing early on
    i got involved with
    you know distributors and brokers who
    weren’t looking out for me
    really um they’re looking to make sales
    and
    that’s fine whatever that’s their
    prerogative
    but because of that there’s been ripple
    effects of that for me right so
    the people that i uh connect with to
    help me
    you know do installs i’ve had really
    great people i have an installer who
    installed some equipment a few years ago
    still owes me 1 500 bucks
    i don’t think i’m ever going to see that
    money but i text him every you know
    couple months like hey does that money
    come in and i always get a new excuse
    but he’s a great guy but you know
    so and and same with repair people you
    know because
    i have been connected with uh you know
    early on
    because i got connected with people who
    really weren’t taking care of me i kind
    of just had to fend for myself right so
    i’ve had to go through
    a lot of people to find
    good people to work with and i always
    try to take care of
    you know people but then you know you
    start to realize oh
    this person’s you know probably not the
    best person out there
    you know there’s he’s not really very
    responsive and he doesn’t really show up
    when he says he’s gonna show up and
    you know he’s come three times now and
    actually none of the machines that he’s
    supposed to be fixing are fixed
    like what’s going on here and i’ve
    already paid them you know like
    uh so just a lot of hard lessons right
    but that’s part of like
    that lesson of you know if you if you
    cut the wrong corners if you are look if
    you’re strictly price driven
    you know that whole you get what you pay
    for saying
    is you know it’s got it’s got truth to
    it so
    hard lessons to learn that have had
    ripple effects for years for me
    really how many how many uh years have
    you on this
    five or six now yeah like six or seven
    somewhere in there
    i remember meeting you shortly after you
    got them yeah
    yeah i think i got one and then a little
    over a year later i got the second one
    so well real quick can we
    can we blitz through these i want to
    just kind of blitz through you know the
    flip side of that do you see anything
    that
    that owners who maybe are struggling a
    little bit more
    what do you see anything consistent that
    they’re doing yeah
    we can elaborate on what people are
    doing good um
    and the consistency there that’s
    important um some things that i see that
    people
    lack on that affects their business is
    they they forget about customer service
    we’re customer service industry
    it’s a business they’ll cut the rock
    wrong corners
    um uh which is the opposite of what we
    talked about
    is doing things the right way not
    cutting
    the wrong corners um you know it
    requires time remember the biggest gift
    you can give someone is your time as we
    said earlier on
    so give your investment which is your
    laundromat give it some time
    it’ll reflect in your profits
    um a laundromat is not a check-in once
    or twice a week and collect a bunch of
    quarters it’s just not it’s a business
    it needs tlc it needs to be
    thought out it needs to be driven and
    people need to be thanked
    and you know a lot of times people don’t
    build the laundromat
    according to the community that it’s in
    so know your community know what the
    community wants
    um don’t get into the laundromat that
    you’ve been thinking about for the last
    20 years and you finally get your
    laundromat and you build it what you
    were thinking about
    but you forgot about the community you
    built it in um
    and then you know a lot of times people
    just don’t understand the
    least they got themselves into but
    that’s what i would say is
    that’s what i would say would be some of
    the things that um
    don’t do so i would say well yeah i
    think those are that’s a great list
    right there but i want to kind of
    jump on a tangent a little bit i mean a
    very relevant tangent but let’s please
    well look i want to talk about the
    leading horse over here
    i mean the the lease is a huge thing
    right it’s like
    gonna be your number one or number two
    expense probably
    uh you know behind labor perhaps or
    maybe in front of labor
    so it that lease is a super important
    document
    so i mean can you talk just a little bit
    more about maybe
    some things to look out for in a lease
    or maybe mistakes that you’ve seen
    people make
    i would say before signing the lease and
    jordan you have
    you have more experience on this side
    than i do this is um
    a place that i’m i’ve gotten into over
    the last year year and a half so
    please um if i say anything that you
    disagree with be like stop right there
    stop right there but you definitely have
    more experience in this
    than i do but um some of the things that
    i do see is
    people don’t record check they don’t do
    the
    utility comparisons and they don’t
    observe as much as they should be
    um during due diligence i’m i’m talking
    to reference to due diligence
    before they sign the lease they just
    automatically assume they’re gonna walk
    into this place the guy’s been making
    money for 20 years and
    they’re going to start to make money too
    so
    once again that’s record checking
    utility comparison
    and observation and remember that
    observation
    that’s the one area where people can
    actually cheat on you
    so observation is good
    but remember that’s the one that people
    can be a little bit shifty on they can
    make you see what they don’t want you to
    see
    um speaking of andy cunningham
    um he always says numbers don’t lie
    people do i think i’ve heard it 20 or 30
    times
    and he’s right and and people can
    manipulate numbers but is that still
    fine possibly you may manipulate numbers
    to make them
    say what you want them to so um so it’s
    really important to record check and do
    your
    utility comparisons you want to see are
    the revenues credible and can they be
    validated are there
    are the expenses credible and can they
    be validated
    um is the labor credible
    you know if it’s 3 500 square foot and
    they’re spending 2 000
    a month for labor or even one thousand
    i’ve seen
    and they’re saying they’re fully
    attended okay well
    so-and-so’s niece and cousin cover it
    most of the time
    are their niece and cousin gonna work
    for it for free when you take it over
    like
    you’ve got to have that consideration
    where is how is the
    how is the labor allocated from the
    number that’s on your
    information sheet um and then most
    importantly
    is what’s currently here all sustainable
    throughout the life of the lease that’s
    the most important thing right there is
    it sustainable
    and then if it’s not maybe it’s good for
    five seven eight years and then you get
    into these options that are just
    insane and then you’re trying to sell a
    laundromat that’s eight years old and
    you’ve got these crazy increases
    and uh your your profitable laundromat
    for the first five years
    is now a thorn in your side so uh you’ve
    got it
    you got got to know if it’s sustainable
    um and you
    got to understand the lease itself and
    this is something that i see
    quite often many people don’t understand
    their lease when you know why
    because i don’t like reading 25 pages if
    print that good
    if you had a lease and in a picture book
    i think i would get it
    nobody likes to read like that yeah
    right we should start doing ikea
    book leases ikea elise right you don’t
    have to even speak the language
    be great so many people type many times
    people don’t understand their terms
    they don’t understand their rent
    increases how does it
    schedule out over the course of the next
    15 years
    um is it assignable
    if i have a 20 year lease can i reassign
    it let me give you
    um a quick little thing that i’ve ran
    into
    um about people who are in the business
    too and this goes for everyone not just
    newer people um there’s there’s people
    who have multiple stores been in the
    business for time
    who get at least that they end up
    scratching their heads going does that
    really say that
    you know uh current situation i wouldn’t
    say current situation i ran into a
    recent situation
    and um these owners
    had 14 years left on their lease and
    they were going to
    do some stuff to make a long story short
    they’re going to do some stuff
    transferred around sell that to get
    something else
    and then we go to read the lease and
    it’s four years left on the lease with
    two five-year options
    how many years you got we got 14 years
    right
    not unless after the term lease
    after the term lease you’re not able
    after that ends
    the options are only assignable to the
    original lassie and they’re the second
    tenant
    so what that says is okay you’ve got
    four years and if the landlord
    wants to give you the next ten they
    could
    now the original se if they have that
    and they were still in the building it’s
    automatically warranted
    because that was under the master lease
    so
    stuff like that um and that’s a big deal
    too
    right because they really only have a
    four year lease and the landlord could
    double the rent
    or decide they don’t want a laundromat
    there anymore and all of a sudden
    they don’t have a laundromat there
    anymore right or they’re not making
    nearly as much money as they were
    so these owners invested they invested
    wasn’t like they just took over and it’s
    standing they they
    it’s they’re killing it and is the
    landlord going to work with them
    probably probably does he have to
    does he have to no no no and he can he
    can gouge him too
    you know especially if they’re killing
    it and he knows it right
    right oh yeah we’ll give you a new lease
    we gotta forget about the options we’re
    gonna get you a new lease
    and it starts out three times as much as
    you’re paying right now
    yep comps in the area have gone up it’s
    a beautiful area things have changed
    you know it’s so it’s uh you want it you
    want to know the least the assignability
    is
    is huge um
    uh and then here’s another story you
    know um here
    you can reflect on this is the
    laundromat that
    you can personally is it a laundromat
    that you can personally be successful at
    it’s kind of like when i was talking to
    my cpa i’m like look shaq
    i’m not going to just throw you into any
    laundromat i’m going to consider your
    life balance
    what you got going on make sure you can
    be successful in that laundromat
    uh for a couple reasons why because it’s
    common decency for a human being it’s
    truthful and it’s transparent
    hello and number two is i don’t want to
    see you fail
    i i don’t um what do you feel
    i don’t know it depends on where to put
    them into you know if i put them into a
    7 000 square foot laundry store that’s
    that’s that’s killing it
    and he has a job and a family and
    everything like that he’s probably not
    going to be that successful
    um so you got to put the right person in
    the right seat let’s say
    um and then you know get a professional
    to review it
    um find a good broker that you trust
    just like your distributor
    brokers aren’t crooks everyone’s always
    like the stigma of a broker i can go do
    the whole thing
    well you know he charges a lot i don’t
    want to pay for it you know how many
    times
    i’ve seen someone lose their ass because
    they didn’t get someone
    a professional involved in their
    decision to get a 20-year lease
    um we could do a class on that jordan
    i mean you could do a class on that i’m
    learning about that stuff here
    but i i’ve seen a lot of it yeah so so
    yeah that makes sense yeah yeah
    absolutely absolutely um so a good
    broker
    or good consultant can save your butt
    and it’s you know you can
    you can go to brokers and get consultant
    or you can go to a consultant spend
    three grand
    um and i would love to spend three grand
    um for a guy to get me out of a deal
    that i thought i was gonna get myself
    into
    to five seven ten years down the road
    realize that i
    just lost a couple hundred grand um
    so that is not an exaggeration of a
    story either because i
    i mean i’ve said this before on the
    podcast is i mean that was my situation
    like if i could pay if i could go back
    and pay somebody
    10 grand a consultant 10 grand to talk
    me out of buying that first laundromat
    it would have saved me so much
    money and emotional stress in those
    early years
    at this laundromat you know that i would
    i would go back and do it in a
    heartbeat but you know i mean i didn’t
    know better right so
    then like you said like this is all part
    of my story and part of why i do
    probably a big driving factor of why i
    do what i do now um
    but man getting the right people
    on your side huge love that love that
    message
    again build your team and i’m glad that
    that happened to you because
    uh you wouldn’t be helping we would not
    have this platform right now if it
    didn’t happen
    don’t take that personally i’m glad it
    happened to you but it happen to you
    yeah
    thank you rejoice in my pain i love it
    well
    listen this has been incredible
    and i mean you just dropped so much
    knowledge and i love just your
    perspective
    and this is i mean this is stuff i’ve
    already known about you we’re good
    friends and
    it’s why that you know when when we
    started talking about
    getting together putting together a
    syndication group
    diligence capital investments you know
    and
    and you kind of asked if if i was
    interested in being a part of what
    you’re doing
    and you know all that like
    i on board 100 right away not only
    are you uh just an awesome
    guy you know and an awesome dad and
    you know and all that but you’re super
    knowledgeable and you joke all the time
    with ross and i about
    you know oh you guys let me join blah
    blah blah
    but you know when we went and checked
    out this last uh
    this last project we’re thinking about
    jumping into
    um which is a build out of a of a
    retail space um for a laundromat
    and i saw you in action i was like
    this is your element like this is your
    like this is your wheelhouse right here
    and you just went right to work
    and the wheels were turning you knew
    exactly what to do exactly what to look
    for
    exactly what we needed to be successful
    in that spot and
    i could not be happier to have you on
    part of
    diligence so let’s talk about that just
    for a second
    thank you very much i appreciate that um
    i do thank you uh you get i think i just
    teared up there jordan
    [Music]
    well hey seriously i mean i know we like
    joking
    back and forth but i i mean every word
    of that like you
    no seriously i did tear up yeah
    [Music]
    all right quit being a crybaby over
    there and uh
    yeah i yeah i’m just i’m super pumped to
    be you know
    partnering with you and with ross and i
    think it’s a it’s a special thing we got
    going
    and i’m excited about not just uh you
    know making some money with
    you know laundromats and real estate
    because i think we’re gonna do that
    right and
    and we’re gonna partner with people and
    you know they’re gonna make money too
    but even more than that for one it’s the
    way that i know that we’re gonna do it
    because i know who you are i know who
    ross is i know who i
    am and the way that we’re gonna do it
    means something to me and um you know
    coming with integrity
    and you know that that servant’s heart
    like i know that you have and that ross
    has
    um all of that and and not only that but
    i
    i i’m excited about doing good things
    for
    the communities we’re going to be
    involved in which i think is one of the
    beauties of this
    industry right like elizabeth brick and
    rick and wilson came on the podcast a
    little while ago
    and i’ve said this quote a few times now
    that she said but she said you know your
    laundromat is really
    an extension of the community’s home
    right because
    it’s a home chore right laundry’s a home
    chore and
    um i love that
    people like you and like ross and
    you know and me get to get together and
    you know make that happen
    in some community so i’m excited about
    that you said servant’s heart
    and there’s when we tried this and i was
    the third to come on by the way so i
    was humbled that you guys invited me
    with your experience and with you guys
    are
    doing but how you got in the business
    what you’re doing uh
    for on this platform is amazing and then
    ross is
    i that guy is all about giving back to
    the community
    his heart is in the right place um i’m
    sure you’ve seen his video
    um have you seen the video that i’ve
    just done seen it and it’s awesome and i
    will link to it so other people can
    watch it too because it’s
    we don’t even have to talk about ross
    we’ll just let everybody watch the video
    and that video does a lot better job
    than you and i can ever possibly talk
    about
    uh that guy and i honestly like
    like i see a lot of people are out there
    he is one of the most effective owners
    that i’ve come across
    in southern california i have a lot of
    respect for him yeah
    yeah definitely a top operator and
    yeah i love it well it just you know
    just to throw it out there if that’s
    something that you’re interested in
    doing if you’re interested in
    in you know being a part of one of these
    syndications the best
    best way to hear a little bit more
    information is go to
    diligencecapitalinvestments.com
    um and i’ll link to that also so you can
    check that out
    and uh if uh if you’re interested in
    that there’s a little forum on there you
    can just drop your name and email
    address we’re not spamming anybody but
    basically the way that we uh the way
    that we function is that we’re going out
    looking for
    laundromat deals to either buy or to
    make
    and or commercial real estate deals and
    and we’re really wanting to partner
    those two together to marry laundromats
    in real estate together uh to
    create a whole lot of value for
    everybody involved so if that’s
    something that you’re interested in go
    drop your name and email address on the
    form there
    and when we have deals that we are
    interested in investing in basically
    what we’ll do is we’ll put together a
    package
    with just a bunch of information about a
    particular deal
    you know what what the plan is for that
    deal what it’s going to look like
    uh when it’s done and what investment
    opportunities in that deal
    there will be um and the parameters
    around that and we’ll
    you know we’ll send that information
    that package out to
    that investor list so i know a lot of
    you guys are already signed up it’s been
    pretty cool and we’re really excited to
    to partner with you guys and we would
    love to um
    you know to also use this as an
    opportunity to educate people
    you know about the industry so if you’re
    looking for a relatively
    passive way to get in that you can start
    to learn this business and you want to
    learn from
    the best and by the best i mean ross and
    michael and i’ll be there
    to learning with you guys and
    you know maybe offering a little here
    and there but um
    this this could be a really great way
    for you know the right kind of person
    and going back to michael’s you know
    point is
    you know this is for the right kind this
    is not for everybody right this is for
    the right kind of person maybe somebody
    who already has some money that they
    want to put to work for them
    and either wants to do it passively or
    wants to
    do it in a way where they can learn the
    business we you know
    we’ll be we’ll be open with our
    investors and we’ll run it very
    transparent we’ll also be available
    um to talk laundromats so i don’t know
    you want to add anything to any of that
    no it’s uh you’ve noted it all and
    it’s i’m happy to be working with you
    and ross on this
    and and thank you for allowing me to be
    here today yeah
    i’ve enjoyed the conversation it’s not
    too often that you could actually sit
    down and have
    laundry talk and have the other person
    actually be interested
    and in this case there’s there’s what
    three billion people out there
    listening so yeah i mean by the time it
    comes out they’ll probably we’ll
    probably hit that 4 billion mark i’m
    guessing
    well dude it has been my honor my
    privilege and even though
    you know we’re 46 or so episodes in
    and you know desperation drove me to ask
    you on i guess it’s worked out pretty
    well
    no but seriously man it’s been an honor
    and a privilege to have you on and to
    hear
    your wisdom and insight into this
    industry so i really appreciate you
    coming on dude
    well whatever i brought to the table i
    learned from everybody out there so i’ll
    keep on
    keep on getting on the streets and
    learning from all of the owners
    uh new and and people who have been
    around for a while and
    people like yourselves and ross so uh
    i’m humbled thank you
    very much and uh we’ll be in touch soon
    i know that for a fact
    yeah go follow the laundromat mike on
    instagram and on facebook
    and connect up with him great dude you
    gotta know him all right guys
    all right i told you michael is such a
    solid guy so cool his heart really comes
    through in that episode and i
    loved loved loved that uh
    and hopefully you got a chance to just
    get to know him and just benefit from
    the immense wisdom that he has
    so good and i also hope that if you’re
    watching on youtube you really enjoyed
    my mustache which my wife already made
    me shave
    off lamely even though it was glorious
    and
    if you are listening on the podcast you
    might want to go check it out on youtube
    briefly
    check out that glorious mustache because
    it’s i mean there’s not really another
    word
    than glorious okay anyways uh back to
    michael because he
    uh dude he just brought so much good
    stuff i really loved
    uh hearing from his perspective from the
    distributor side of things
    uh about uh you know what makes a good
    distributor what distributors should be
    doing and how to work with a good
    distributor
    to benefit you as the owner and benefit
    them but mostly you as the