Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Create wealth through Franchising. I'm your host, Kim Daly.
Whether you're a CEO, a military vet, a real estate investor, or simply in career transition and ready to take ownership of your future, with each episode, you're going to learn valuable insights and hear inspiring stories from within the franchise industry.
On that note, my guest stories are their own. And as a franchise consultant, I do not make personal brand endorsements or earnings claims, but I do educate, motivate, and inspire dreams.
Now onto the show.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Welcome back to Create wealth through Franchising podcast and Kim Daily tv. In my studio today, a new friend. His name is Jesse Durham. He is a pillar to post home inspection franchisee all the way from that other country in Texas called Fort Worth.
Jesse, welcome to the studio of Kim Daly tv.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: We are so excited that you are here today.
So we're going to dive in at the beginning of your story because my followers want to know what was happening in your life when you answered the call to franchising.
[00:01:24] Speaker C: So it's probably a little unconventional. I was a realtor up in the Detroit, Michigan area. I was a firefighter as well. I was a firefighter first, trying to make some extra money, became a realtor, and then accidentally used pillar to post. My home inspector wasn't available, so I was like, what? I have a coffee cup from something. Here we go. I didn't really know of them or anything. And then I seen the home inspection and I'm like, oh, this is different.
This is how they're supposed to be. So I ended up connecting with that franchise owner. I didn't know a thing about franchises. I asked him, and he'll tell you this too, because I remember the look he gave me. Is this a good company to work for? And then he looked over at me and he's like, you don't know, do you? I'm like, no. Just trying to make small talk. Like, prior to that, I had no idea what was going on. And I asked him, I'm like, can I own a franchise? Is that a thing? And he was like, yeah. So, you know, over a couple years, I did a bunch of research. I looked into other home inspection franchises. I looked into other franchises in general, the difference between franchising and just going out on your own. And I just kept coming back. The choice was clear. But now we're in year four.
We're coming up to the beginning of five. It's been insane. It's been amazing.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Okay, so I love that you are a fireman. Firemen always have multiple jobs or businesses. I've helped many of firemen out there start a franchise business with all the extra hours they have. So that's awesome. And such very good work that you were doing. But you were in Michigan, and now you're in Fort Worth. So take us from Michigan to Fort Worth. How did you get there?
[00:02:58] Speaker C: If you've ever been in Michigan, in the, like, November through March or April, it was a time in life it was cold. It was always dark.
It's one of those, like, your bones get cold and you just can't warm up until, like, May or June. It was kind of right around when Covid hit. So things were kind of crazy and kind of odd, and we were like, let's run. We can restart, but we kind of have to do it, like, right now.
I don't know what next week holds. So we bought an enclosed trailer, loaded everything that was important to us up, and then got a moving company to bring the rest and picked Fort Worth. We drove until it was warm.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: I love that. Okay, so you said something very important in the beginning. You said you used pillar to post kind of by accident because you're the home inspector. You always used was busy, and you were like, oh, this is how it's supposed to be. So what was the difference in that experience from the mom and pop to the franchise?
[00:04:02] Speaker C: So the mom and pop guy, it was an older guy. He did really good.
Nothing against him at all. But then I didn't know because I was a realtor, I didn't know much about it. This guy, he, like, walked the roof, and I'm like, you got on that steep roof? And he was like, the roof is one of the most important components. We have to get on the roof. Okay, Now I kind of feel bad for all my other clients. And I'm like, you crawled in the whole crawl space. But one of the important things is when I got this was like, really what set it off is he was like, show up at 11am or whatever it was. And I get there, and he actually had the report literally in his hand. He printed it out and he gave it to the client. And we went over it there, like, walking around the house. He was like, this is wrong, and this is why it's wrong. And this is, you know, how it's wrong. Who fixes it? We left knowing more about the house, not just with a list of problems, but we had everything we needed to know about the house.
Like, almost an overwhelming amount of information that you could really dive into. So we knew every nook and cranny of that house.
That house ended up getting hit by a U Haul truck a week later. And we had to find a different one. But it was a very interesting time. But it was just kind of eye opening where I'm like, this was comfortable. We were laughing. Even though he's only giving us bad information. Right. Relatively. It was just so much different and, like, comfortable. When we left, we were happy. It was like really eye opening to see the difference.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Okay, so then you go out and you start looking at other, like, home inspection franchises.
[00:05:32] Speaker C: Yeah, I did.
So I started with other home inspection franchises and then I'm like, well, what about other franchises in general? I looked at everything. Dog washes, storage units, everything different. Brick and mortar ones that have no storefront. A mobile tire repair shop. It's a van that you buy. It was like a giant van. They use warehouses for storage. I looked at all of them just to kind of see what fit my lifestyle best. But I always found my way back to real estate in one form or the other.
[00:06:01] Speaker B: Right. You weren't using a franchise consultant. You were doing this on your own.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: Yeah, it was me and Google.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: I wish we could have helped you there. But it sounds like you made it to what was right for you. So in all of that research, why did you come back to home inspection?
[00:06:17] Speaker C: So I think what it is is especially that age that I was, it was very technical. I liked repairing things, I like diagnosing things. But with home inspections, I get to go in the house and find out what's wrong and then take a picture of it and walk away. I don't have to fix a single thing. It's incredible. You get all of the fun and somebody else fixes it.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: That's funny. So, and on that note, like, I would think that a lot of people out there, I was going to ask you this anyway, would think I really couldn't be a home inspector because I don't have all that technical knowledge. Do you have to have the technical knowledge before you invest in the franchise or is that part of the training?
[00:06:56] Speaker C: So this is probably a very unpopular opinion. You don't need technical training. I think the better home inspectors come from people who don't have technical training. Because you can learn about homes, they're mechanical, everything can be replaced. It takes time, obviously, but it's more important to know how to run the business. You can hire home inspectors with construction backgrounds. You're not going to hire home inspectors with business backgrounds. So. And I didn't do this in the very beginning. But looking back, it's better to have more of a business mindset, maybe a marketing mindset. And then the third hat you wear is home inspections because at the end of the day, you run a sales business, you sell home inspections.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: Did you hear what he said, followers? He said it's better.
Maybe this isn't a popular opinion. We'll, we'll give it a caveat because he said it. But it could be better for you to not know how to be a home inspector. And why would that be, Jesse?
[00:07:52] Speaker C: Because, I mean, you can learn how to inspect the home. It's running the business.
That is the, I don't want to call it more important, but detrimental.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Exactly. What he's saying is that if you have the technical knowledge and know how and your love is really in the inspecting the home, you bought yourself a job. You're not building a business. So what he's saying is it could be better for you in this technical business to not have the technical knowledge because you'll be less inclined to pinch hit. Right. You want to be the one focused on building the relationship with the realtors, the things that drive revenue to your business. Correct, Jesse?
[00:08:32] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So on that note, so let's talk about how you bridged that. So you said you didn't do it in the beginning, but you do it now. So let's talk a little bit about that switch and how that maybe has transitioned your business and the kind of growth you've enjoyed since you went from that mindset of like the inspector to running a business.
[00:08:52] Speaker C: So when I bought the franchise, I mean, like, I knew what I was getting into, but I wanted to do the inspections. I enjoyed the marketing. Like, I'll wear all the hats. It was no big deal. You know, I hit the ground running, mind you, I had no job. We moved here, like bills keep coming in, so I have to hit the ground running. But I was like, we have all the components in place. We have all the marketing team, IT team. It was pretty simple for me to market and do inspections. And then the business ended up growing to the point where you're going to have to make a decision. You can market and not do inspections, which doesn't really bring you any money. You can do inspections, but you're not going to have time to market. And then your business is going to be on a roller coaster. You're going to market, get inspections, not market those inspections. And I didn't really want to hire, to be quite honest. I was I didn't give it a ton of thought. Cause I'm like, this is me. This is my business. I hired a guy.
It took a couple tries to get the right guy in, which I think is totally normal. Everybody's going to go through that. And then I found out that I can make money on home inspections but not do them. Like, I don't have to do the inspection.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Hey, Daily Coach fans, if you're loving this episode, please do me a quick favor and leave me a five star rating and a short review. Your feedback fuels my growth and rankings and shows others that this podcast is valuable. Now back to the show.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: So you were resistant to hire because you had some head trash about how other people weren't going to do it. Like you, I'm assuming, right Then you did it and you woke up and had the realization that you could like double, triple, quadruple your volume of home inspections if you aren't the one doing them all.
[00:10:32] Speaker C: Yeah, we grew 80% the next year.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: It was kind of one of those, like our lead inspector, when he wakes up in the morning, he wants to do home inspections or he does them whether he wants to or not. He wants to be a home inspector at the end of the day. And for me, at the end of the day, I want to be a business owner. I'll do home inspections. I enjoy marketing, but at the end of the day, I have to run the business. He does home inspections. He goes home. His home inspections are way better than mine. Everybody on our team that does home inspection, they're better than mine. That's their focus, that's their goal, and that's what they're happy with.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: I love that. What an awesome growth curve you've had. And so that's to really transform the revenue of your business?
[00:11:14] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, tenfold. It's been huge, but on top of that, it's given me a better quality of life.
I think everybody would kind of see it that way. Where we still. You own a business. Like when people ask, can you make your own schedule? I'm always like, yeah, you can work whatever 80 hours a week you want. You're not going straight to the beach at the end of year one. But it's easier, it's more comfortable. I can do a home inspection if I want, or I can go market if I want. It's just doing what the business needs.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: And when you say market, what does that entail?
[00:11:45] Speaker C: Right now I'm at a real estate convention downtown Fort Worth. Anything that really revolves around realtors We've been very fortunate with it in the beginning. Literally, if, like, the word realtor is involved, you better be doing it. And then from there, you can kind of cut it down and see what's more beneficial, build your relationships.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Once you build kind of a core base of realtors that understand the value of your home inspections, does that they start repeating and just sending you their clients?
[00:12:13] Speaker C: Absolutely. Yeah. Good words travel pretty fast. Bad words travel faster. But if you do a good job, that essentially is marketing as well.
[00:12:22] Speaker B: Exactly how much support? Like, I want to go back to your thoughts about the mom and pop situation versus being a franchisee. So now that you're in this and you're scaling it and you got a team, can you imagine building the business you've built, but without the support of the franchise underneath you?
[00:12:43] Speaker C: It wouldn't happen. It wouldn't happen at this rate, at least for us.
I don't know about other franchises, and when I looked into them, this was important, but it was years ago. We have amazing marketing teams, IT teams, even vendor partners. And one thing that a lot of people look over is, like, for our insurance, we have, like, the best insurance, right? Very high coverage and all that. We pay less than mom and pops shops pay for low coverage.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: We'll say, because you have national buying power.
[00:13:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I often forget that. And then I hear somebody complain about what they're paying for insurance, and I'm like, oh, that's about what I pay. And then I'm like, but mine's a million times better. And that's the same for, you know, the tools that we have to buy stuff like that. But then we have. I can go right to our IT team and say, like, hey, these aren't syncing. This isn't cooperating. Or to marketing team. And I'm like, hey, we started doing sewer scopes. Can you make me some flyers? You know, brochure.
They'll print it and mail it to us. It's unreal. That's really cool. They're going to do a so much better job than me. They're going to do it faster, they're going to do it better. But it also gives me time to focus on other things.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And do you enjoy the camaraderie with the other franchisees, whether they be in Dallas or just even other states?
[00:14:00] Speaker C: I do. We meet up once a year on, like, a national scale, and then a couple times a year, state or region.
I have a. There's a franchise owner here with me from Houston at this convention. I do, like it we all see eye to eye and I think one thing is we all have similar mindsets. Whether they want to be the home inspector, they want to be the only point of contact. Some want to do only the marketing, some want to do none. But at the end of the day, we all have the same goal. So no matter how we get there, it's going to be the same.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: So let's take it back from Michigan to Fort Worth, leaving what you knew, which was being a fireman and jumping into home inspection.
Looking back, do you have any regrets?
[00:14:41] Speaker C: Not really. I think the common one is like, would you do it sooner? In hindsight you say yes. I don't know if I was mature enough to do it sooner. So I don't think the timing was necessarily in my hands. I think it was somebody else's timing. It couldn't have worked out any better. I mean, I would not change a single thing.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: And this business has fully supported your new life in Fort Worth?
[00:15:02] Speaker C: Oh yeah. We haven't had any other businesses or anything. Fort Worth is a really busy market. I know that works to our advantage, but we hit the ground running and it's been insane.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: Do you own more than one territory, Jesse?
[00:15:15] Speaker C: We do. We just bought out the territory north of ours. And when I moved here, I was actually the fifth franchise in Fort Worth. I remember people telling me they're like, there's no business here. And the other four went out of business. There's a lot of business here.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: It's Fort Worth and here you are adding another territory. Yeah, that's awesome too because like, just because other people have a belief that feels like a limiting belief doesn't mean that you have to believe it's true. And you know what, what we believe to be true is what we make true a hundred percent of the time. I have seen that happen with candidates all throughout the 20 plus years I've been a franchise consultant. That is absolutely an astute comment. I love that you're making that market and you're out there and you're doing the work. The problem for a lot of owners probably is that they want to be the hands on technician. They don't want to do the part that drives the customer. So in their eyes there is no customer, but it's because their focus was on the wrong part of the business.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I could see that being true for any field.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: 100% true. Exactly. That was the thing that took me from eight years average performing to one year later. History making was waking up and saying to myself, oh, you're not really a consultant. You're a prospector. Because the limiting factor to me making more money was helping more people. If I wanted to help more people, I needed to know more people. So when I switched my focus from trying to be a consultant to trying to find people who wanted to talk about exploring franchising, everything in my life changed, including history in my industry 12 months later. So it's 100% true, Jesse. I absolutely love that. So for the listener who's out there listening to your inspiring story and thinking, wow, I could be like that guy. I could own a business like that. What advice do you have for that person who's sitting on the sideline who isn't yet exploring a franchise through Kim Daly?
[00:17:11] Speaker C: I would never recommend buying a trailer, loading it up, and driving across the country. It worked. It definitely worked. I don't think it can happen twice. But as far as looking into franchising, I mean, I think it's really important to do a lot of research, like, make sure it's right for you, make sure it's right for your family and everything. But it's so convenient. The help that's there. I was definitely entry level, and the help and support we got was insane. Don't rush into it. But at the same time, you have to make that choice. You take the first steps, you make the choice, you get it done.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: That's awesome. Great advice. Thank you so much for being my special guest here today on Kim Daly tv.
[00:17:49] Speaker C: Jesse, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much. Well, for those who are ready to be like Jesse Durham, maybe not to pack up the trailer and move cross country and start a business all at once, because he said that was hard. But if you're where you are and you are excited to begin to explore a franchise that may match your background, interests, skills, finances, and goals, will you know that Kim Daly wants to be your franchise consultant and your daily coach? So please follow the link in the description right now, because I can't wait to meet you. Thank you so much for staying with us till the end and we'll see you in the next one.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: You can find more content just like like this on my YouTube channel at KimDaily TV. And if you're inspired to take the next step to explore franchises matched to you, please email me right now at InquireimDaily TV. That's InquireimDaily TV.
