Mostly Middle Tennessee Business Podcast

Unknown: Own, actually, before I
do that.

Okay, so I'm going to change the
date on this to the 14th good

all inputs round.

That'll be a second recording.
Yeah, ready, ready

to go. Got too close for the
bargain.

This is the mostly Middle
Tennessee business podcast, a

podcast about Middle Tennessee
business owners and

professionals,

mostly. So

what social stigma does society
need to get over. That's a tough

one. Come on. Now, this is the
kind of stuff we start out with.

Yep,

I'm gonna have to go with the
phones. You think so I'm gonna

have to go with phones. You
don't like phones. I don't. I

just, you know, if you walk in,
there's nothing better than

physically shaking the hand of
someone and looking at my eye

and start talking. You

know, you're too young to be
thinking that, but it's

refreshing to hear that. So
those you guys tuning in, this

is Dan degiulio that I have on
the podcast today. He is the

owner, the CEO of junk remedy.
Is it junk remedy solutions?

Junk remedy is junk remedy, junk
remedy. So if you need to be

remediated, which is the is that
the root word of remedy all

your junk removal needs, that's

right, of junk that you have
stored up. And maybe you're kind

of a hoarder or something like
that. I can only imagine the

stories you have. Wouldn't
breathe it got it. We're gonna

be talking to Dan today. He's
actually a vivacious character.

He's a fellow BNI. Er, you've
heard me talk about BNI before

on the podcast. We're in the
Wilco chapter together. Anybody

who's listening, if you're in
the area and you want to check

out a BNI chapter, let me know.
We'll send out an invite. We'll

get you all situated. We're
there every Wednesday from seven

ish to nine or so, and that's
how Dan and I met, the best

meeting of your week. That's
right. Bring that mic a little

closer. We want to hear what you
have to say, buddy. So want to

get into all the different
things, your background and

stuff and how you got into it.
But that was a really quick

answer. Bones, because you're
still in your 20s. If I

24 Yeah, you're young. I think
that the biggest thing is, you

know, if I'm, do you hate being
called Young? I'm sorry, you

know, not really. I think I like
it in the business standpoint.

When, I mean, I have a lot of
people ask me, you know, Are you

the owner of this branch here?
And I say, yes. They go, how?

How old are you? You could be my
grandkid. And I'm like, I'm 24

and I just like the look on
their face when I do tell them

my age. And that aspect I do. I
do like it, but in general, it

doesn't really bother me. It
honestly, just drives me more.

So

it's not a bad thing, because a
lot of 24 year olds, you know,

I've known people older that,
you know, don't have it

together, let alone own a bit
own a business. And this is, I

mean, because of your age, I
would imagine it's a fairly new

business, but you're, you've got
the chutzpah, the chutzpah,

Yes, yep, it took some time to
definitely some learning curves.

But, I mean, I think just
especially with my age comes the

more so knowledge along the
technology lines. The social

media is the driving force of
most businesses. Now, if you get

a good social media platform
going, you establish a good

base, you could really take off
just by utilizing AI and what

you put on social media, yeah,
the

only thing about AI is, like, I
saw a post this morning from a

guy who's about my age. He goes,
I just replaced $350 of my

expenses every month for to
vendors with AI. I'm like, man,

what are we doing here? You
know, because he's in a business

too. That can be, I guess, AI,
ified, okay, I just invented

that term. It really could,
like, we don't need, you know,

we don't need anybody really
selling this stuff anymore. He

sells insurance. And it's like,
you know, legal industry,

insurance, all these, all these
industries can be replaced by AI

at some point, junk remedy, not
so much. No, you still need to

physically haul and still,
unless they start, you know,

deploying robots out there, you
know, that's right, yeah. So

tell me your story you came out
of. You're not from around here.

I could tell by the accent.

That's right. I'm, I'm actually
from northwest suburbs of

Chicago, so up in Illinois,
spent the first 21 years of my

life there. I went to Illinois
State my first two years. But

now backtrack just a little bit.
There's one other branch of junk

remedy, and my cousin, business
partner Nick degiulio, owns that

one. So I worked for him for
about five, six years. Loved

every single day of it, and then
I went off to college. So I was

working on my Christmas break,
my summer break, and then the

pandemic happened. Fortunately,
we were deemed essential

workers. So, you know, we were
sent home from college at the

time Illinois State. So I was a
full time student in full time

working, which was super nice.
So I never really had to

quarantine. You know, a lot I
hear a lot of the quarantine

stories. I never had to do that.
I was physically working. You

know, actually outside. The
trucks every single day during

COVID. And I was majoring in
risk management insurance at the

time at Illinois State. And, you
know, one day I woke up, I'm

like, I really don't want

to do this. Hmm, sure, probably
1920 years old, yeah, at the

time, yeah. I just it wasn't my
calling. And I realized how much

I loved hauling junk and just
every day is different. I love

meeting to people. I love
talking. I love I just love the

daily life of junk removal. So I
sat down with Nick, my family

member, and decided, Hey, what
are our thoughts about opening

up another branch? And you know,
the light clicked on between he

himself and I, and we loved it.
His first question, well, where

are you going to go? I've been
to Tennessee before. I've been

to Green Bay, Indianapolis, and
then I haven't been to Phoenix,

but that was another big one.
But based on statistics, areas

that are rising, you know, for
someone like a business like my

my own, you want to go somewhere
where people are moving to not

moving from. So people are
moving with more and more items,

you know, to get back onto the
story was, I ended up

transferring out of Illinois
State, all my friends and, you

know, I was close to my family,
being from Illinois and

transferred to Western Kentucky,
right across the border here in

Tennessee, and changed my major
to small business management and

entrepreneurship. Started coming
down here every weekend trying

to learn where learn the area
and build connections. And sure

enough, I skipped my graduation
because I had an older lady call

and wanted some items hauled out
two days before I was supposed

to open. And sure enough, now
I'm here.

You skip the unity, the rite of
passage that is graduation. You

didn't even I'm not gonna
bother.

Well, graduation, graduate.
Graduation was one thing you

know, it was I was supposed to
open the day after Memorial Day.

So memorial day, Monday,
Tuesday, was supposed to be my

opening. To be my opening day. I
had, I was still up in Bowling

Green, Kentucky at the time, and
I had a lady call me on

Thursday. My Trucks were already
down here. I was ready to go,

but I still had graduation. And
that weekend of moving out of

Kentucky, down here to
Nashville, and I had this older

lady call me, and, you know, she
was all sorts of hysterical on

the phone, saying, I need this
out. I need this out. Can you be

here Friday? I looked at my
schedule. It happened to be the

day I was walking to receive my
diploma after four years of

school. I was just so excited.
That's

about how it meant to you. Yeah,
that's it. There's just a piece

of paper. So do any loans or
anything like that? Did you have

scholarships?

Hopefully, scholarships. Yes,
yep. So I came out of college

with no student loans, I came
out with no debt, nothing like

that. I was able to jump right
into work, and I ended up

getting my piece of paper, my
diploma, mailed to me. My mom

bought me a frame for it. I have
it framed in my house, but I

started a little bit earlier
business wise than I thought.

But fun story now so

probably means more more to your
mom that it does, do you I

guess, big time. Yeah,

she was asking me if I'm just
gonna, you know, cram it under

the bed or hang it on the wall,
and I ended up hanging it up

with all of my other junk remedy
information in my office now, so

she's super happy to see that,
you know.

So is it a franchise, or is it
your own brand?

So we did not franchise. So Nick
owns the Illinois one, and I am

the controlling power, and I own
this one. However, I was still

still able to use the brand. We
set up an S corp, an S

corporation, yeah, so I can
still use all the trademarks.

And he helps me out down here.
And you know, he really got me

going with the gear, like the
branding, the Logos, the

website, everything

like that, because he had the
all set up and established up

there. Yes, he is. He's been

there for 1516, years. He's been
hauling junk for longer than

that. So he's been well
established. I mean, he is 43

wife and kids, so there was a
bit of an age gap between us.

However. I mean, he and I work
like bread and butter. I mean,

we have a very, very good and
professional and fun business

relationship, but also on the
family aspect, which is a big

thing for us, calling us a
small, family owned business,

being

a very, you know, strong Irish,
German last name that you have.

Nobody laughs at that joke. For
crying out loud, I know it's

Italian. You're really confused.
I did that one time to Charlie

Benante, the drummer for
anthrax, and I said, you know,

what's it like being so strongly
Irish? And he looked at me like

I had horns growing on him, and
he's like, and he's and he's

like, Irish. I said, Yeah, I
know. Maybe I just need to stop

telling this joke. Or maybe I
need to

reconstruct it, construct it.
Yeah, I like that. I see where

it's going reconstruct,
reconstruct. Yes, the strong

attachment,

it's like, basically my B and I
ask, I try to be funny. I've

given up being funny because
it's like a crash and burn every

time. You know, I try to make
people laugh. Sometimes it

happens. And, you know, I
thought it'd be funny, and I I

deliver it with the timing and
everything. And it's like,

people just look at you. I'm
like, maybe I'm just not built

to be funny. And, you know, and
stand up, I could be funny on a

podcast. There we go. It's my
gifting, yes. So, so I asked

about the logo because it looks
like a long established, like

franchise of a logo, right, you
know. So I think that it's a

great name. And, you know, it's,
to me, it seemed like you just

kind of bought into a franchise.
But kudos to you, you can

possibly own it,

yep. So that was, you know,
although I own this one, and he

owns that one. Yeah, and but I
was able to grow up working for

him at the Illinois branch, and
that's where I learned and

gained all the knowledge I have
about what I do. Now, sure,

there's always learning curves
when I came down here, you know,

I failed many, many times, but
just getting back up and keep

going. And sure enough, how did
you fail? What were some of your

failures? Some of the failures
were not knowing where I'm

supposed to go. So, like, in
terms of, like, a customer's

house, no, not, not that we have
the mask for that one, but, you

know, there's jobs. I didn't, I
didn't know where the transfer

stations were. I didn't know
where the land, the landfills,

if we do go, the donation
centers, things like that. So we

were doing jobs, and I started
biting off more than I can chew,

because I'm, you know, I was
sitting here. I was like, I

don't know where to take these
trucks. I jumped into it, and I

was like, I can't believe I
thought of one of the most

crucial things part of this
business is, how do I empty

these trucks? Oh, yeah. So right
off the RIP I'm doing, I we

ended up cleaning a whole
dentist office house, and I

only, you know, I have two
trucks and a couple of trailers

here, and I'm sitting here, I'm
like, I don't know where to take

these trucks. So I'm calling
around, calling around. No, we

don't take commercial vehicles,
or we don't take new vendors.

And that was a big issue. Of it
was a lot of it's just so busy

here. Now there's so many people
that do it that we are not

accepting new clients. And I
can't, I mean, we donate, but a

lot of it's also non donatable.
So, I mean, at that point, it

goes to a transfer station and
they take care

of it from there. But there's
like a dump site out of

Fairview, though, isn't there?

But that's see there, there is.
But that's the big thing. Is, if

I'm up in Gallatin or
Hendersonville, Tennessee, I

can't drive down to Fairview.
So, I mean, if I am in this

area, yes, we've gone there, and
it works really well. Nowadays.

I know exactly where to go. I
have some good areas in town,

but at first I'm sitting there
and I'm having to postpone jobs

and stuff like that, because I
can't figure out where to take

these trucks. It was one thing
that I just did not think of in

the whole heat of setting the
business up when I was still in

college and then getting down
here to open. The one thing I

have to do, and we do it
multiple times a day, is clear

our trucks. Yeah. So right off
the RIP was, Oh, boy. What do I

have to do? So I ended up going
over to waste management, which

charges you four times more than
other places will, because their

trucks are coming with 10s of 20
tons of trash per truck, where

I'm only bringing one ton,
right? So they have minimums

where it's a lot more expensive,
so stuff like that, little

things like that. That led to, I
got to be doing this better,

learning curves

more. So it's not just a
landfill. You can ring it to or

you got to find them. No, you
can't.

You can't. You gotta find them.
Yeah, you can, but they're

strict about what they can and
cannot take. So tires, TVs,

mattresses, are surcharges at
the majority of places. That's

why we charge surcharges for
them. Some places are a little

bit more lenient on them, but a
lot of places have one to two

ton truck minimum. So if I only
fill half a truck of 1000

pounds, you know, I'm, you know,
a little under half a ton

monetarily. Is it smart to go
clear there? No, it's try to go

somewhere with a lower minimum.
I

mean, it's kind of nice. It's
like doing demolition for

construction. Yes, you know
you're going in there, you're

getting a lot of it's very
therapeutic, smashing walls out

and all that stuff. You're not
really having to. I'm not going

to organize your room. For you,
I'm getting all this crap out of

here. Is it a satisfying thing
for you?

Hands down, probably one of the
main reasons I do it, really it,

is, if you go to our social
medias or anything like that,

you'll see some of the craziest
before and afters. And I think

once we do it, I mean, if it's
in a garage, a whole house, a

hoarding, cleanup, whatever it
might be, you know, you just a

living room. It's not messy,
just a living room once you see

everything cleared out of there,
and we clear it out so fast, and

then we clean up. When we're
done, it's just the look on our

clients face of tears of joy and
smiles, of just happy, pure

happiness, of, I can't believe
this is gone. Do

you help them? Like, what's the
lady that? Does it spark joy?

You know, do you kind of get
into that, or is that already

predetermined by the time you
show up? Like, you know, I just,

should I throw this away? Or,
you know, do you have to give

opinions, or anything like that?
So

I've had people that have asked
for my opinion, and I work with

a lot of staging and clutter
companies, okay? And those are

people that have come in and
will organize your garage. And I

work with some wonderful,
wonderful companies down here,

and they had a rule that they
gave to me. They said, If anyone

ever asks you, tell them if you
haven't touched it in five

years, you're probably not going
to touch it again. Yeah, get rid

of it.

See, I have a garage full of all
that stuff, you know, spare

parts and screws and brackets
that every time you get

something, it could be, you
know, a set of shades or blinds,

and they come with all the extra
parts. And my mindset is, why

would I throw this? Is valuable
stuff, you know, somebody made

this, or a machine made this,
and it came from, you know, at

some point the earth, you know,
I'm going to toss it in the

trash. It's still in the
packaging. No, I'm going to save

it. Because you never know when
I need a, you know, a bracket

that looks like it's been bent
out of shape. Yeah, maybe once

in a blue moon. I'm like, Man,
I'm glad I kept that.

Yep, that's right. As a garage
Guru, I understand exactly what

you're saying from my personal
standpoint. Then at the other

end, it's, you know, what? You
can go men, you can go bend and

buy a bracket there for $5 but
not have the countless boxes and

then try to find it. So, I mean,
everyone's different on that, on

that, but when people do ask for
my opinion, pretty much, I'll

say, I mean, unless it has real
sedimental family value or it's

an heirloom, of course, you
know, you're not, you're not

going to really touch that
heirloom. It's just going to sit

and look pretty on the mantle or
whatever. But if they're just

boxes of old kid toys, yeah, you
know, we'll take them because

we'll go donate that to Toys for
Tots and kids that need stuff

like that. So if you haven't
touched it in five years, five

years is the number, huh? I'd
like to say, so yeah, I think

that's, I think that's the sweet
spot. I'd

say probably go down as much as
six months. You could. You

could. So you said getting down
here, there's a lot I was going

to ask about the competition,
because we've recently got into

the garage door business as a
company here, and we have a

consultant on hand who's, like
the garage door guy in this

area. He's he actually came from
Chicago. He's a good friend of

mine for the past 10 years. His
name is Bill, yes, and he's

consulting with us. He is like
50 years in the business. He

knows his stuff, and just by
happenstance, we went through a

season in our company, we had to
pivot and figure out how to get

more near term commodity based
revenue, because a lot of what

we do podcasting, it's a want,
not a need, you know, colorful

lighting, you could put in car
washes and other places that go

in harsh environments. And then
some want, not a need, right?

It's, you know, whoever. Maybe
it'll become a need at some

point, but it's still kind of a
want. So what is it that we can

get into when garage doors
happen to come up and we, we

started getting into that
because of the commodity aspect

of it. It's something we can
handle. A lot of technical,

mechanical work that we are
capable of. I carry a set of

tools in the back of my jeep, in
case I got to go fix a garage

door. And it's we just kind of,
we went into it that way, when

all of a sudden, after seeing
what Bill went through and how

he built his business, it was
like a handful of garage door

people out there. Now they're
everywhere. Oh yeah, oh my. It's

like, we're really where were
all these people? We decided to

get in the pool and like,
everybody's in the pool. That's

right. Is that what you found to
be in the well, you moved here

so you had no but exists, of
comparison,

exact same thing. I mean, in the
long run, I do being up in

Illinois, there's the same
amount of competition, if not

more, there than here. That was
definitely an eye opener for me.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, kind of
talking back to Illinois Nick,

the only other company before
Nick opened. You know, 1516,

years ago was one 800 got junk,
the world's largest junk, and

they're in three, four different
countries, in 48 of the

continental United States down
here. I got here, and pretty

much everyone was well
established. So it was harder

for me to kick my foot in that
door. I was the last one in the

pool. Yeah, you know. So what

was the plan? You said, to
figure it out. Did you have a

strategy?

See, that's tough. That was the
tough part. I think the main

driver is why, why do I do it?
And how can I show people my why

and my, my company's why, as to,
again, why they should use us

over you know, the 1516, other
companies around here, even in

and so you get, you have your
established business, businesses

like mine, that are licensed,
bonded and insured. We have the

gear. We have the uniform,
friendly staff that are

background check, this, that and
the other. However, if that's

you want to bring in in the
house, I hope you do. But we

can't compete with the normal
two guys that are just having

they have a trailer sitting in
their backyard, and they're just

hauling junk on the weekends for
not even an eighth of the price

of what me or any of the other
company, we just can't compete

with that. No, and that's the
thing. So if you want to bring

someone that is not insured into
your house, if you scratch a

wall, well, great, you're never
going to see them again.

Accidents happen if we were to
scratch a wall, you know, we're

insured to come take care of
that floor, stuff like that. So

really stressing on that in our
why, as to why we're the best

out there, why we're the best in
this area, was really getting

the name and our mission
statement out there. Are you

putting yourself as my main
face? Yes, and speaking and all

that stuff I forget to know you.

I found through trial and error
again, just from starting that

if I post just a social media
picture of my truck, of the junk

trucks wrapped clean and they
look good, great. I get, you

know, my average amount of
likes, comment shares, but when

I post pictures of my face in
front of a truck or my crew all

happy and smiling, I get double
Hmm. I think people like to see

who is going to be coming into
their house, and I'll post on

Facebook in these different like
groups around town, I will

significantly, every single
time, get more likes, comments,

shares and referrals off of
people seeing my face. Mm. It's

the same thing as, why do I want
to go to all of my estimates in

person? Because I want that
physical handshake. I can give

them an estimate. I mean, most
of the days I can give you an

estimate over the phone, and
you'll never see me. Yeah, even

though, if it's a cheap job or
expensive, I want to go there to

physically shake your hand, look
you dead in the eye, and build

that personal relation with you.
And most of the time, you'll get

the job. Compared to, if I were
to just do it over the phone?

Was that, based on your
experience up in Chicago and

being a kind of a mentee to your
I

would definitely say, so yeah,
that was definitely the

strongest thing. But again, I
was 1617, or 15, 1617, years old

at that time. I wasn't really
thinking about that, of course

not. But was, is that how he
operated? Yeah, yeah, Nick. Nick

still goes to all the in person
estimates, or all the estimates

and stuff like that still to
show face, because people want

to have that relation nowadays.
Everyone's so sheltered and

you're on your phone, everything
you could do is on your phone

now, but still having that
personal relation and physically

shaking hands and looking eye to
eye in a room makes a big

difference. Will get you the
biggest difference

so and as people in your
generation, around your age,

it's amazing. These are old
school techniques that have been

kind of forgotten even, you
know, I tell my kids, and I kind

of harp on them with when you
text somebody, stop using text

speech, you know, all the
different abbreviations and

contractions and things of that
nature, because you look and

sound like everybody else,
right? If you want to rise above

and of course, this is me as
their dad who doesn't know

anything. Telling them this, it
makes a difference. Yes, it

does, you know. I mean my son
literally. The other day, text

asked me a question, and I was
like, Dude, I have no idea what

you're even talking about. I
don't know if you're just, you

know, you kind of sped through
this message or whatever. And

it's like you're not an idiot.
Why would I sound like one?

Right? You know what I mean, and
it's, he's not an idiot at all.

He's borderline genius, yeah?
But it's like you don't just

take some pride in how you type
and how you put yourself out

there, old school methodologies
of like, what you're talking

about, dude, that'll that alone
will put you ahead of the curve,

right? Because nobody's doing it
anymore, you know, kind of sad

damn phones, yeah. The biggest

generation difference, I think,
is that, I mean, even so you

talk to the majority of you know
people my age, and then the

occasional few. And just that,
it's a colossal difference of

old school, new school, or the
slang. It's, I mean, even so

what you're saying, I understand
I'm in that generation, but some

of the times I'll hear some of
the slang, I'm like, I actually

have no clue what that term
means. I mean, sure, I know the

most of it's just having friends
and whatnot, but some of it, I'm

like, I really don't know what
that means.

Well, it's not only that you you
just go on Facebook any given

day, and some of these community
pages, Yes, ours being I heart

Spring Hill, there are people
that just want to get on there

and bitch. And when they do,
it's not a good argument. It

didn't. They're, I understand
the point they're making, but

it's one of those things.
They're kind of going on. The

sentences are have no
punctuation. They the English is

just butchered. And it's not
like they don't they're not

foreign or anything like that.
They're not from outside the

country. These are people that
you presume to have been born

here, right? Okay? And you read
these, proofread, for crying out

loud, it's just like, if you
want to be taken seriously,

write,

well, yes, oh, well, landslide,
yeah, yeah,

but it's yeah, here we are. I
feel like I'm gonna get off my

lawn guy now, yeah,

I've had people write me emails,
like, more emotional

professionals, 4050, year olds.
I'm like, they're still spelling

yours in your email. Yeah, this
email is only five sentences

long. Yeah, takes 30 seconds.

Now, I will say there's a case
for brevity. Like, even when I

pitch people, when we talk to
people in car washes, I try not

to do like, you know, essay
length emails and stuff, right?

Hey, here's what you asked for.
Here's I always try to get on

the phone with them, yeah, you
know, so they get a feel for who

I am, not necessarily. You know,
if we can do FaceTime, if they

want to, we can. But, you know,
typically I talk about, hey,

here's what you talked about.
Here's what this thing, here's

bullet points. Make it look nice
and neat but easily digestible

within 2030, seconds, right?
Right? Is that something that

you do as well? I mean, you're
seeing everybody.

Yeah, I'm seeing everyone. I
think eventually you're not

going to be able to. I pretty
much true, true. But I'm excited

for that day. I want to get so
busy that I am now running out

of that time. That's a good
thing for business. You know,

busy is good, but, yeah, I mean,
my I still do handwritten

estimates. They have invoice to
go. I haven't switched over. I

still do handwritten estimates
when I'm in person and give them

a physical piece of paper,
whether they stick it or throw

in the junk drawer or put it on
the fridge, so be it. But yes,

when I am talking to more people
throughout emails and stuff, it

is pretty much this is what's
going on. This is what you

filled. Here's your estimate.
This is how you could pay. Thank

you very much. Yeah, and then go
from there,

10. Yeah, yeah. How many people
you got working

for you? Right? I have six
really. So I have four full time

guys, two part time. And the
part time is basically they're

off one day a week. So they both
mow lawns, one of them with his

father. It's just one of their
smaller, you know, family,

little family business. They
wrote, mow the neighborhood and

stuff like that. So one day a
week, he's off, and he lets me

know with ahead of time. And
then the other guys through

going through some schooling for
fire to be a fireman. So

the thing about what you guys do
is, how do you take a commodity

business like this and make it
socially really interesting? I

kind of think about the guy. I
bring him up a lot, and I want

to have him on at some point. I
should probably be charging them

advertising. By this point,
Tennessee electrician, here's a

commodity based a trade where
not a lot of people, hopefully,

the youth, is starting to see
the appeal and the fruitfulness

of a career that a trade can
offer you. I was too short

sighted back in the day. I
wanted to get in the radio, but

I did. I was an electricians
apprentice. I did low voltage

wiring for a season with my dad.
So I have a pretty varied

background when it comes to
that. This guy has found a way

to get, like, tool deals. He's
probably got sponsorships. You

know, he's making money off of
Instagram. He's got a couple

100,000 followers, right? Yeah,
he's just here in Tennessee. He

just sticks a camera behind him.
If he's at decking out a panel,

like ripping out the old circuit
breakers and putting a new

wiring and making it look nice,
he'll do a time lapse video.

Yep. And dude, it is so
satisfying to watch. Yes, it is.

So I mean, if you do things like
that, where you're you know,

hey, here's the room

you see all the you know, all
the time. Do you that is

something I'm really trying to
one of the main things. And keep

in mind, I'm I could film. I
don't have, you know, cameras.

Some of my employees have good
cameras, and they've came and

take pictures of the trucks. All
you need is a GoPro. That's what

I'm talking about. And I want to
get, I want to get the chess

piece GoPro, because they say
always get content. Yeah, your

before and afters can make the
biggest difference. But when we

cut down a shed or a hot tub,
I'll take a time lapse, I'll set

my phone up, take a time lapse,
yeah, and I'll post that, then a

before picture and an after
picture, and I'll put that on

Instagram, Facebook, tick tock,
and they blow up. Yeah, people

love them.

The guy, it's so satisfying to
watch. They are. You see the

guys who mow lawns? Yep, you see
that? Oh, those, those ones are,

they're amazing. Yep, there's so
much fun to watch. There's one

guy, he just goes and he'll
find, like, an abandoned house

or, you know, someplace where
their lawn just is way

overgrown. It knocks on the
door. I do it for free. Yeah,

I'll just, I'll mow your lawn
for free. It's content for me.

I'm more than happy. And
typically, people are like,

Okay, what's the catch? There is
no catch, I promise you. You

know, here's my social media
channel. He's got the clout, you

know, he's got the social proof.
This is what I do to promote my

business. And he's got a
tremendous following. I mean,

it's amazing. And it's like, for
me, what can we possibly be

doing, you know, to make it look
interesting, I did, like, actual

takes, voiceover stuff for a
while. I've done mess ups and

flubs, you know, I probably
should get back to do those

again. But the voiceover stuff
that doesn't seem to be as

interesting as it used to be, I
guess. But I don't know. Man, I

don't know how you make, you
know, making a podcast all that

interesting. Oh, yeah, other
than the actual content that

comes out, you're right, you
know, right. But no, get getting

those before and afters. I just
started integrating into Tiktok.

Really was not much of a Tiktok
fan at all. Actually, I don't

really. I use social media, not
as much. Personally, time to

time, it's nice to see my
extended family that they get to

see my stuff, you know, this,
that and the other. But for

business, it's pretty much my go
to now. Now I started going into

the tiktoks, yeah, and making
those, which I'm posting these

longer, you know, either 32nd
video, for 10 second, and

they're just collages, yeah, if
we have a full clean out, okay,

you're picking up a box, I'll
get a video of that. You two are

picking up the couch. Get a
video to that. Load it into the

trucks. Get a video of the
trucks before, after, breaking

apart doors. You know, whatever
we have to do and put it all

within the same video. And it's
very, very sad,

what you need to do is, once you
get big enough, buy a piece of

property and put like a maybe,
like a 50, 6070, foot tower on

it, right where you can hoist
things up and Will

it break? Yes, yep, I've seen

those. They're Australian guys
that do that. They have a giant

tower out in the freaking the
bush, the Outback, and they

bring random stuff. They have,
like a giant AX at the bottom of

this thing. That's like an ax
head that's just huge, yep, the

size of that table, yes. And
they just drop stuff on it, just

to see if it'll break. But, I
mean, Will it break? Is a

concept. You're welcome,

and it's awesome. I think the
biggest thing I've looked at is

doing the rage rooms. Now, let
me pick your brain on this one

interesting they said, I mean,
if you think about it, I'm

hauling things that, if they
can't be donated, you know,

break them, take a baseball bat,
sledge hammer. Yeah, I

my job is living with a rage
room, right? And it's fun. I'm

never mad. I'm it's a great
time. But imagine opening that,

yeah, as a side venture. But
taking vid, you see videos of

these people in the rage rooms,
and you get the one guy that

goes in there and he hits the
same thing 50 times. There's

other things in there. He's so
mad. He's going in there, comes

out. I feel good. And those
videos get a lot of views.

Imagine getting just a bedroom
sized room, and now I'm not, you

know, I'm not paying to fill it
up. I get things off the job,

baseball bats, golf clubs, you
name it. But those videos are

satisfying. There

was a guy we were helping as a
radio station. We did a

community benefit day where we'd
go out and help a charity, you

know, do these kinds of things.
And one day, we went out to a

place. It was for a battered for
battered women's shelter, and we

were there to help them organize
and clean up and get some junk

out and stuff. So across the
street was a big football field,

and our my general manager and
the sales manager found a set of

golf clubs. They wanted to just
dump old golf club. So, like, we

need to take these across the
street and we're going to do

what we've always wanted to do
on the golf course, hurl these

things as far as we can, because
we can't do that on the golf

course. And that's what they
did. They went across like, oh,

that's just, I've you have no
money. No idea how many times

I've wanted to do that.

You're onto something there
little,

I mean, little things just like
that. Yeah, think about it. How

much fun and joy does it bring
you? For instance, the golf club

you're talking about, how much
just joy and just pure happiness

does it bring just taking a golf
club and throwing it as far as

you can, right? It sounds like
it's something little, but in

the end of the day. It's, it's

attached to, yes, a life
experience that can either feed

you so much joy or frustrate the
crap out

here, exactly for something that
easy to think of, but brings you

so much joy and happiness and
laughter. It's like things like

that. It's worth it. It's

like, How many times did you
want to, you know, hurl a mouse

across the room, not an actual
animal, but a mouse, you know?

Oh, yeah, because your computer
doesn't work. I know I have.

There have been times I wanted
to take this damn computer and

throw it out the window, oh
yeah, and stomp on it, like that

scene in office space. But maybe
that's it. You know, I'm

thinking commercial property,
where you operate out of and

then side business, like you're
talking about, Will it break and

the rage room? Yeah, build it.
What's that tower for? Oh, just

stick around. Stick around. I'm
fine. We got, we've got a, you

know, a sectional sofa that's
going to be hoisted up over to

drop it. And Will it break?
That's great. It's like, great.

It's like the old school, Will
It Blend? Where they put stuff

in this, like, industrial
blender? Yes, they do, like,

cell phones and all this other
stuff. And, yeah,

now they have the new one out
there. It's, uh, cake or fake,

yeah, yep.

Kahoot. The grinding video, the
shredding videos, get one of

those big industrial shredders,

yes? And I've seen the hydraulic
press, yes. The hydraulic press

satisfying too. You're getting

free content. And you get all
this, you know, these pieces of

things that, if they don't take
them and make content out of

them, because

then they come look at me. Now
they're mine. They could turn to

dust Exactly. Now,

if you take, like, a mattress,
or what were the other things

that you got to pay a premium

on mattress, mattresses, tires,
TVs, so tires,

obviously being shredded, yeah,
that could be turned into

mulch. That's what they do,
yeah, well, depending on the

yard. But, yeah, so, I mean,

if you because, I mean, rubber
mulch is expensive. Yes, it is,

you know, you gotta, you go to
get it. Get a regular, you know,

wood mulch at Home Depot, the
bag is, I mean, rubber mulch is

probably 10 times as much. I
want to say, Yeah, dude, buy

yourself a shredder.

They're looking, you're looking
at the gold mine businesses

there. And then it's, you know,
how can you come off? You know,

go in on that with you can spend
so many different businesses off

of this, just finding things,
right? I mean, we just named six

in the past two minutes.

Is this the most fruitful
podcast you've ever been on,

aside from, aside from Lindsay
Stafford, she was, she was a

great yes

to be on. Now, it's been a great
time, great time. But pitching

the ideas, it's just fun to
start talking about, because are

we talking about

new things here? I

think so really. I mean, you
haven't thought of these before,

the rage room was probably the
bigger one. Yeah, that's a good

idea. I think that's, I think
that was one just because,

again, we were talking about the
videos not satisfying. They are

for people to watch. Will break,
Yeah, same thing in these rage

rooms. Yeah. You know, I've
thought about that for the

longest time, and you could do
it. It's so feasible.

So getting back to, like, if you
shred a mattress, obviously, the

tires you don't need. You
wouldn't want to bring that

stuff back to a landfill. Now
you can actually, hey, who needs

rubber mulch? We're putting it
into these cardboard boxes or

whatever. And here's a cubic
yard of it, you know, cardboard

box. And come pick them up. You
stack them up, and you charge

however much.

I'm just saying, buddy. I mean,
that's,

you have it there now, is the
demand for tires there? Well, I

mean, there's

everybody, there's, there's
always tires being recycled and

stuff like that. That's it. Is
recycling? Does it matter if

they're, you know, I guess
radios will have the the webbing

inside of them, right? Does that
matter in mulcher, though? Or,

yeah. I don't know who that's

a good question. Yeah, I don't
know. I know that a lot of times

we do get tires with rims still
on them, yeah? And, you know,

the different yards take care of
that. But I, I'm curious about

the netting inside, if they if
that matters for the mulch, I

wouldn't really think so. They
showed it up pretty small,

yeah? Because, you see, it's
like those big, you know,

they're almost like horror movie
type of like, if someone were to

get caught in one of those
things, good, you know, cyanoy?

Yes,

that's like when you're watching
a snake movie, right? Or, I'm

sorry, a spider movie, and
that's the web, you know, to go

the other way, right? So I don't
know. It's a good question.

Yeah,

if you find out how much a
grinder is, let me know.

Because, I mean, if you want a
partner in that business,

that's, that's, a no brainer.

So another business on that, if
we're buying a big grinder, will

it grind right? Will this TV
grind up? Who knows,

they typically will, unless

it's like a piece of cobalt or
something like that. But you

know,

nevertheless, the amount of fun
you can have with a grinder,

right? Right? I only imagine

how what the maintenance is on
those things, but for tires,

they're gonna chew right
through, right? Yeah, you can

do, will it grind? But, I mean,
they really, at some of these

videos, you see them with
tricycles and bicycles engine

blocks,

yep. No problem with the teeth.
And then you got them on the

roller, and then it just somehow
gets caught in

it. It's relentless churning.
It's like, you know, even the

hydraulic press videos and like,
Okay, what's, what's gonna crush

a hydraulic press? Right? Right?
Is there stuff in there that

it's crushing? I'm like, that
should, wow. Okay, would that

the hydraulic press

should give in? That's a That's
a good question. Will a

hydraulic press crush fail?
Yeah, what's gonna happen? It's

like, Iron sharpens. I

think there have been videos
where I guess the hoses explode.

So it has happened

that would probably make the
most sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've seen some videos, even
trucks, like my trucks are

hydraulic lifts. They're dump
trucks, yeah. But I've seen

videos, not mine, luckily. But
I've seen other trucks that

those hoses once they blow and
they catch fire. I mean, it's

like a kaboom that

actually happened out here,
really? Yeah, we were in Vegas

for a trade show few years back,
and we get a photo or a video on

our one of our cameras from one
of our guys and like, where is

this? It's our driveway. A
garbage truck came up to pick up

our stuff, and then all of a
sudden, it just blew a hydraulic

line and caught fire. Yep, and
they're flammable. Oh, they're

hugely fam I mean, we still got
melted siding. It actually

totaled one of our employees
cars, just from the heat.

They get hot. Yeah, that
hydraulic fluids like burning

oil. Yeah, it gets hot because
they burn for a very, very long

time. Yeah. So

my wife's like, there's smoke
coming from where your office

is. I said, that's because it is
our office. She goes, Oh my

gosh. I said, No, a fire truck
or a garbage truck caught on

fire in our driveway. Wow,
crazy. There's a lot of

different you got my wheels
turning. There's a lot of

different things that you can do
with the byproducts of what you

do, right? You know,

think about, we just came up
with that in five minutes. I

know, think of the Amen,

and now somebody's gonna hear
this and run with the idea. So

hopefully, you know, between
when we record it until when we

put it out, there'll be, we'll
be on to this thing. We can get

it going. We can. So you had
something else that happened

yesterday. You went on local TV,
original TV. How did that work

out? How did that begin and how
did it go?

So that was something different,
completely different. I've never

been live on the air, you know?
I've done podcast, Lindsay's

podcast, and this, that and the
other. And then I got

approached. I got approached
about, you know how so my

trucks, for instance, are you've
seen them, are bright and

yellow. They really pop with a
junkologist, doctor on the side.

Well, someone from The News
Station saw that, saw my trucks

on the road, and sure enough,
one of their marketing resources

or directors reached out to me,
someone along those lines,

reached out to me and said, Hey,
we just did a deep dive on your

whole website. We love what you
stand for. We love your small

family owned we would really
love to get you on the air. And

at first it was a phone call. So
at first I'm thinking, is this,

is this real? Are they pitching
me right? Or what's going on

here? Like, is this just going
to be you're trying to get me,

you know, for stuff like that,
she's No, we just want to get

you on the air. We We just saw
your trucks. Loved him, and we

want to, you know, promote your
business, and we have some spots

to fill. Sure enough, couple
weeks go by, and sure enough,

yesterday, I was live on the air
at two o'clock on the wkrn News,

two ABC, nice. So school is
never been on the air like that

before, maybe when I was a kid,
when they filmed like a school,

and it just happened to be our
school, but for me, for me

doing, like, an actual
interview. It was very, very

exciting. So,

so when you got down here, you
didn't have six employees, it

was just you, it was

just myself. And then my
business partner stayed for like

a week to help me get going, and
that was it. And it just jumped

off from there.

And then how many trucks and
stuff did you have? Right off

the bat? That too. So you built
up to where you are, which is,

yep. So I started with two
trucks. I still have two trucks.

Now I have some trailers, but
I'm looking for another truck,

or even two more trucks. That's

another business we kind of
looked into because we got a

couple of trailers here on site.
We rent out our trailers. Yeah,

it's, that's a big one. It's,
it's a tough, it's tough to find

things of the price of these
trucks, just the price of steel.

So the box on the back is, it's
an absurd amount of money just

for the box. And you're not even
talking if you're buying a

reliable or even new. I mean,
it's the price is insane. So you

know what? Luckily, I can still
function with my two now and

trailers, and they're longer
days, but if I can get another

truck in here, I mean, I'm
looking at, you're looking at a

pretty penny. Nevertheless, if
you're buying one that needs

work or not, yeah, they're like,
over 100 grand, right? And then

you got to sandblast them, paint
them, wrap them. That's a big

thing, even if they're new, is
the clean well, then you would

just wrap them. But wrapping a
truck like that's still pretty

expensive. There's so many
little components that go into

it, adds up pretty quick.

I mean, that question, I guess
it's done well for you, for your

branding, but ease of getting in
contact with you when it's you

have like an 800 number. That's
kind of like one 800 got junk

or well, so there is, we have
our normal 877, our junk number,

and if you call that, it'll say,
push one for Illinois, push two

for Tennessee, and you'll get
directed right to my phone,

right? But a lot of the even on
our websites, my personal

number, which is just my work
number, on my business cards, is

just my personal number. So
you're not going to be talking

with you know, you're not going
to be talking with someone on

the other side of the world that
you know might even be a little

bit harder to understand them.
You're going to talk to me every

time. You're going to get that
family feel for me, you won't

talk to anyone else but myself.
And through and through till the

end,

what's the plan? Until you can
take all those calls? What are

you going to do then?

Then once that happens, it'll be
more so a local call center.

Yeah, I would want a call center
that's in the same time zone

as us. I would hope that you
eventually just have some like a

home base. Well, yes,

then I mean ideally, having a
secretary that could handle the

schedule, the calls, the
estimates, and just throw it

onto a schedule, then have an
ops manager come in and take

care of that. I mean, that is
your ideal down the road. So

that was a what does that look
like in five years?

In five years? So oddly enough,
within my first year, I actually

just bought another headquarter,
a headquarters here. So I think

in five years, right now I'm
looking at 12 full time so no

college, just full time workers.
I'm looking at six trucks total.

So then I have two guys per
truck. So I'm running six truck

teams, 12 guys total. And then
I'm also looking to in five

years is have an actual about a
6000 square foot pole barn where

I'm running fully everything out
of with hydraulic lifts in them,

so I could work on my trucks
myself to not have to pay

mechanics, because, again, I
like to do that on the side. So

we're looking at six trucks a
pole barn and 12 workers. Is my

physical like goals for the
business.

So essentially, doubling your
business, really, probably

tripling your business too.
About triple, yeah, you're gonna

buy. You're gonna have to do
that in order to accommodate, I

want

to set your goals high, yeah. So
have something to reach. Well,

setting your goals high would be
10x in your business. Yeah,

yeah. So I'm looking forward to
it. I think you know i or i know

that that's really what I'm
looking for in the five year

span. And then really start
elaborating more on business

plans, and even so opening up
side business. We're talking

about the mulch, the rage rooms,
the you know, stuff like that.

Right on.

So how do people get a hold of
you and find Well, actually,

first off, before we get there,
I had this question asked of me

this week, and I'm still trying
to figure out what my answer is.

We talked a lot about legacy,
and I was actually schooled on

the definition of the of the
word legacy wasn't really what I

thought it meant. Like, I always
thought of legacy, like Bill

Clinton wanted his libraries and
stuff like that, and the what he

did for the country to be his
legacy. It turned out to be, you

know, something entirely
different. And we kind of landed

on the notion of, well, what do
you want to be remembered for?

So question to you, what do you
want to be remembered for? You

to make me feel a whole lot
better, if you you struggle with

this answer.

He didn't quit. I

think that's the biggest thing.
That's a good one. I mean, well,

at least off the top my head,
I'm sure if I sat down and

really elaborated on that
question, but for a quick answer

is, I didn't quit. Yeah, I just
kept on going and working

through. Get knocked down, get
back up. Get knocked down two

more times. Get up two more
times.

Which is gonna happen, right?
Yeah, that's that's life. That's

business. What does life in your
40s look like for you? You have,

like, a big plan for that,
because you're 24 you said

right, right, at the helm of a,
probably a six figure business,

I would imagine quickly
approaching seven. That's of not

a lot of 24 year olds are doing
that.

It's very exciting. I'm thinking
for 40. I mean, it's tough for

me to sit down, yeah. Could will
that change when I'm 40? I. I'm

assuming. So, yeah, but right
now it's like, Oh, I get, you

know, I get one Saturday off,
and what am I doing? I'm washing

my junk trucks. I'm still
working and doing stuff because

it's hard for me to sit still.
So I don't know what 40 really

looks like, as much as I want to
say I could sit in a rocking

chair on my porch and drink
coffee and watch the deer walk

by. Well, you know, I have
people that take care of the

rest of the aspects of junk
remedy and

work, right, or whatever. How
many other businesses you own by

that

exactly. So who knows? Maybe I'm
opening up another business that

I can just run from the tank
theater my own office, right?

And have people for that. The
world is my oyster.

You got a great attitude. Man,
endless possibilities. Man,

those possibilities and that,
just because of that. You should

really hire Dan and his team to
take whatever junk you have and

clean it out and do all the
things, because it's you don't

find you don't, first of all,
surprised to hear that you're 24

I thought you were probably at
least pushing 30, not because of

your looks. By the way you
conduct yourself, you look like

you've been around the block.
You're probably an old soul. And

I would say that kind of plays
into it, very mature but

charismatic way that you carry
yourself, very well liked. Well

you say old soul. Three
favorites, CCR, Tom Petty and

Alabama. Jeez, dude,

yeah, really, at least you have
good taste in music.

I've been told, yeah, those are
my three favorites. CCR. CCR,

actually,

that's really throwing it.
That's that's obscure. Yep, I

have the Bad

Moon Rising potion right in my
wall bathroom on the right. I

have it all sitting right in my
office. Tom Petty love them all.

We

just had on my my buddy and I do
a podcast called the rich

Redmond show. He's the drummer
for Jason Aldean. We just had

Stan Lynch on. You're like,
who's Stanley? You lost me on

that one. He was Tom Petty's
longtime drummer, okay, for the

first 20 years. Okay, yeah, huh.
He's a guy who kind of stepped

in Golden piles of crap, gotcha
so well, there you go. How do

you people find and follow you
and all those fun things? Is it

one location, I hope, where they
can get on your socials?

Well, yeah, it makes it super
easy. So on our website. So

there's a difference of so
business partner, Nick has junk

remedy logos. Mine is just junk
remedy underscore. Tn more just

junk remedy Nashville, and it's
still gonna pop

up. It's funny, because it's
like, why not make that all in

one thing that, hey, we just
have two locations in Chicago

and Nashville. You know,

that was the one thing we really
looked at. But the biggest

difference was with, if I run it
here, you can still build SEO

off of social media, right,
right, right. So if I started

doing it all one lot here, it
would mess with his up there. If

he started doing it up there, it
would mess with mine down here.

So we had to create separates.
You know, he has the actual junk

remedy name, and mine's just
either junk remedy Nashville

Tennessee on Facebook or junk
remedy underscore tn on

Instagram and

Tiktok. Well, there you go. We
got to get all that stuff to me

so I can put it in the
description absolutely normally

do. And of course, everything
will be there if you want to

listen more to other podcasts
and episodes that we've had,

we've had some pretty great
guests, of course, Dan being one

of them. In the past, we've had
Bradley, we've got Mike,

Mercurio, rich, Redmond, a lot
of different guests that

hopefully have provided some
value. Share those out if

they've made an impact on your
life. If you go to mmtbp.com I

know it's convoluted. Mm,
tbp.com mostly Middle Tennessee

business podcast.com. Is also an
option, but I figured the other

one's probably, you know, five
letters versus however many

letters it is to type in mostly
Middle Tennessee Business

Podcast. I'm a marketing guy.
Didn't think too much about the

name of this thing, but I wanted
Middle Tennessee to be the

marquee star of the podcast.
That's why I named it that such.

So I'm Jim McCarthy, and of
course, we produce podcasts here

with it's your show.co, it is
produced by that company. If you

need something like that, let us
know and check out all the

things there. If you want to be
on the podcast, let me know.

We've got a link on that site as
well@mmtbp.com, to be a part of

this podcast as well. Dan,
thanks for coming on, pal. It

was a pleasure

to have you good as always. You.