Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to create Welt through franchising podcast and Kim Daily TV. I am your host, Kim Daley. I want to educate, motivate and inspire your business ownership journey by interviewing CEO's, leaders, sales, coaches and exceptional franchisees to learn their valuable insights and strategies that we can apply to our own business ownership dreams. Now onto the show.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Welcome back to create Welt through franchising podcast and Kim Daily TV. Today in studio is a man who I can't wait to hear his story because he's teased me a little bit with part of it before we hit record. His name is Mike Walters. He is a franchisee with seniors helping seniors out of Florida. Mike, welcome to the studio of Kim Daley TV.
[00:00:59] Speaker C: Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: It is going to be a good one today. So, seniors helping seniors, we're going to come back to that in just a minute. But Mike, why don't you introduce my followers to who you are? And really, what problem in your life were you solving for when you started thinking, we need to make a change and started thinking about a franchise business?
[00:01:23] Speaker C: Our story is I was working for the Social Security Administration for 18 and a half years prior to starting this franchise. And what happened was back in October of 21, we were working from home with Social Security. We were actually in Cincinnati, Ohio, and we live in Ormond Beach, Florida now, which is on the east coast of Florida.
Anyways, we were working from home and my wife, who was a kindergarten teacher for her whole career, but had come home to be with our kids. We have three sons. They are currently 14, 12 and 9.
And at the time, our youngest son had just been back to school full time for maybe like a year. Maybe he was starting his second year, something like that. And I came downstairs from working and she said, you know, I think I'm going to get a part time job somewhere just to get out of the house now that our youngest son's name is Teddy, and now that Teddy is back in school full time. And I said, don't do that.
I'm going to actually resign from Social Security. And we'll figure out something to do that we can make a real impact on the world together.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: And so you tell your wife you're going to resign.
How did that go over, Mike?
[00:02:56] Speaker C: So she said, what are we going to do? And I said, I have no idea, but we'll figure it out.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: And what was driving that feeling of resignation, like, what was happening in your career that you just knew it was, it was time to move on?
[00:03:12] Speaker C: Yeah. So I'm very thankful for that career and a lot of great people along the way.
What happened to me over the years was I just. I saw a lot of things that could be done differently to really help people. And what I did at Social Security was I was a claims rep. So people come in and file for retirement, disability, surviving spouse, ox, children, whatever the case may be. I was talking to a lot of people, and a lot of those people happened to be, you know, people retiring, so people a little bit older. I just saw a lot of things that I really thought could be done better, and I understood why they couldn't let some guy like me go rogue and just have my own ideas and things like that. I understood that things were in place for a reason, but I really felt the need to do something that I could make an impact on. Right. And so I respect that red tape and everything like that with government work or any job, but I wanted to do something different.
So I was six years away from a pension, from Social Security, and people were like, just wait out six more years. And I was like, I can't do it. And so.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: That comment right there, Mike, will resonate with a lot of people, right, because there's, like, half the group that's like, no, like, to your point, like, wait, wait, I'll get your pension. But there's been a lot of other storytellers on this show who have said the exact same thing. Like the desire for more freedom, control, the hunger to, like, do things that, the way that you know that you could do them that you feel would be better than how they're being done. It just drives you to be like, I can't take one more day in this place. I have to just walk away. So sorry to interrupt you. And I just had to say, it's okay.
[00:05:06] Speaker C: Have you ever. Have you ever heard of spider monkey syndrome?
[00:05:09] Speaker B: No.
[00:05:11] Speaker C: So this is a real thing. And I'd heard this many years ago that there's. There's. There's something called spider monkey syndrome. And spider monkeys are a real animal. And how they catch them in the wild is they put a. They make a hole into a tree, and then they put their favorite fruit. And you can watch this on YouTube, and they put their favorite fruit into this tree. And then the spider monkey walks up to the hole. He puts his hand in the hole, he grabs the fruit, and because he has that fruit, he can't get his hand back out.
And humans literally walk up and grab this animal and put him into a cage into captivity.
And I realized that people, I, we do the same thing. And so I had that job that I had my hand in there, and I had that fruit of a job that I thought was security. I mean, it literally had the name security in his name, right, in my case. And I was so scared to let go of that fruit. And what happens is that usually if you just let go, what you really want is just a few feet away, but people go, and I would have gone my whole life just holding onto that fruit and never letting go. And so I had heard that many years ago, and I thought, wow, that's really happening to me.
And I was scared, and I didn't know what was going to do. And I had very well meaning family members saying, do I have to remind you, you have three kids that you need to feed. Oh, and by the way, you're going to move to a city that you've never been to before. You're going to move into a house that you've never set eyes on before, somewhere where you don't have any, you know, family or friends. We were both born and raised in Cincinnati. Everything we knew was there. Our kids were. It was mid year when we ended up moving, mid school year. So that was adjustment for them. And just hang out for six more years, man, and keep your head down and get the pension. And I fought every fiber of my body to hold onto that fruit. And so I did.
And I didn't know what we were gonna do, but we knew we were gonna move to this city called Ormond Beach, Florida, which is like the greatest city in the world now that we're here.
And we were like, well, what do you want to do when we get down there?
[00:08:01] Speaker B: And what prompted the move to Florida?
[00:08:04] Speaker C: So my wife's parents have a condo beachside in Ormond Beach, Florida, right? And so we have gone, we've come down here a few times on vacation, and we knew we liked it. And, and we said to ourselves, every time we would come down here on a vacation. Her parents live in Cincinnati, but they have a condo down here and they snowbird. And, and so every time we'd be down here on vacation, we'd say, man, this would be a great place to retire. And then that's when the conversation happened of, hey, why, why wait till retirement? Why not go down now, build a life, have friends? We have our kids there. There's a better chance of them meeting somebody and them staying there and everything like that, and like, the family being together. Why not go ahead and do it now?
[00:08:54] Speaker B: And why not pull the rug out on everything we know, start it all over at one time.
[00:09:02] Speaker D: And.
[00:09:04] Speaker C: And so we were like, what are we going to do when we get down there to, like, feed our kids? You know, that'd be a good idea. And. And so I looked for. I looked into actually transferring with Social Security to an office down here. I looked into other jobs. I looked into buying businesses or.
[00:09:25] Speaker D: You.
[00:09:26] Speaker C: Know, just taking over a business, starting the business from scratch. We didn't. We didn't, we didn't know what we were going to do.
[00:09:32] Speaker D: And.
[00:09:35] Speaker C: This is where you come in and you don't know this story. Okay.
I don't remember exactly how I met him, but it had been a few years ago, and there was a franchise consultant. His name's Joe.
[00:09:50] Speaker D: Right.
[00:09:54] Speaker C: I really can't remember how I ended up on his email list or what the deal was, but, like, once a month, he would, he would just send me an email along with probably whoever else was on his list, you know, and I actually found them interesting. You know, we get a lot of email. We just delete. No big deal. But his email come in like, once a month. I would just, I would read it and be like, that's pretty interesting.
[00:10:17] Speaker D: Right?
So.
[00:10:19] Speaker C: So as we're figuring out what we're going to do, I say, you know, there's this. I tell her, I say there's this guy named Joe. He does something with, like, franchising, which is a form of a business. And I said, I have to go back and find, like, an email or try to find his number or something like that, but I'll reach out to him and see what that's all about.
And we did.
And I reached out to him, and he ended up getting me in touch with another.
So that guy changed my life. There's no two ways about it.
He ended up getting me in touch with another guy that is a franchise consultant. At the time, he was representing brands. Now he's a franchise consultant. His name's Mike, and Mike and I are Joe. Mike and I are good friends till this day. Right.
And why I'm so honored to be here. Kim and I cannot be more sincere about this.
There's four people that changed our lives forever in the franchising world, and I just named two of them, and they did it directly. And then, and then as we were, we were going down that journey, I started looking and trying to find out everything I could about franchising, and I found two people on YouTube, and a guy named Tom is one of them. And I watched all of his videos. And I promise you that you were the second.
And I started watching your videos, Kim, and it gave me the courage to take the next step, and I watched every one of your videos.
This is before I got the email from seniors helping seniors of what? I want to be on your podcast.
I cannot tell you how much what that. I almost bursted into tears just even getting that email, because I know you didn't know me, but for the. For the previous three years, I've been watching you and you helped me take the next step and take the next.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Step, and you're making me cry. That's so amazing.
[00:12:33] Speaker C: I'm so happy to hear that. So that. That's, um.
So that's how we did it. And then we went through the process and. And went through validation calls and got it down to three different brands, and they were all great brands.
And we ended up on the one that we chose.
And it's been a very big blessing in our life.
[00:13:02] 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 comment. Your feedback fuels my growth and rankings and shows others that this podcast is valuable. Now back to the show.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: That's an amazing story, especially the part where Kim Daley was impacting you and I didn't even know it. I love it. God bless you. That's amazing. That's my prayer. That's why I put out so much content just to help people get what we do here in franchising. So I'm glad that my content was a blessing to you. So why did you select? I mean, I can sort of see the connection. I wasn't your consultant, but I can see the connection from your past to the people you were talking to every day and why you might have saw an opportunity in a business called seniors helping seniors. But what was that connection for you and your wife?
[00:13:57] Speaker C: It was really. It was really hard because there was a lot of good brands.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: That means your consultant.
[00:14:05] Speaker C: It was almost a chance. It really. It really came down to. So I think we initially started looking seriously at like six, and we whittled it down to three pretty quickly, and then we had three.
So she.
She does have an aunt and uncle that live here. So she has a few cousins, right? And her aunt owns a fairly successful real estate brokerage firm here.
And I ended up calling her up and I said, hey, here's the three options. Which one do you think?
And she said, I think that seniors one might work down here pretty good. I said, okay, that's it.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: Well, it's a kind of business. You said upfront you wanted to change your life and make an impact. Well, this is a business that greatly impacts other people's lives. And then I think, like, whether you're aware of it or not, I mean, if you're on the phone every day for 18 and a half years talking to people who are of retirement age, you realize how many people are of retirement age with real issues in their lives. Right? So, like, whether you are consciously aware of that or not, that definitely, you know, spoke to me when, you know, you were telling that story of. Okay, I see the connection to seniors helping seniors. So tell us a little bit about your ramp up with seniors years. How many territories are you expanding into? What's the goal of this business now that you're in it? You've changed your life.
Let's go to the middle of the story.
[00:15:39] Speaker C: Okay? So we, we signed the franchise agreement in January of 22.
We actually moved to Florida in February 22.
And in our first full month in business, after licensing and insurance and all that good stuff that you have to get, our first full month in business was June of 22.
Right.
And we have three territories. So we serve. There's three counties down here that happens to be pretty clean for us as far as our territories, St. John's, Flagler and Volusia counties.
And by the end of this year, we'll be the number one home care company in those three counties.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: That's amazing. That's amazing. Congratulations. 2022 was a very big year for you. And so as you look back at all the naysayers who were trying to keep your hands stuck in that tree, back to your spider monkey analogy, like, what do you want to say to them now? Have they changed their tune?
[00:16:48] Speaker C: I think naysayers get a bad rep. And what I think was happening to me is we want to think that the world is kind of trying to hold us back. And what I learned is that you wouldn't worry so much about what other people thought about you if you knew how little they actually did.
I know that I want to put the reasons that I'm not moving forward or doing what I need to do or whatever, it's a lot easier to say it's your mom, dad, aunt, uncle, cousin, whatever, and it's a lot tougher to look inside and say it's going to be hard and it's going to take some guts on your end. And it's you, Mike.
It's amazing.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: I mean, the ownership and accountability in that statement is so amazing. That's why my content resonates for you, Mike, because that is what Kim Daley is all about. Ownership and accountability and definitely not being a victim of our circumstance and letting other people, you know, hold us back, as you said, really, they don't.
We are the only ones who can hold ourselves back. And you took all of that, everything in you, to change your paradigm. And I would love to, like, spend time. We don't have time in this episode, but to dig into, because I know people out there listening are probably like, how did you really do it? How did you really do it? Right? But that's a whole another show that's probably hours in the making to really dig into what did you. What was really the driving motivator in the pit of your belly, right. That allowed you to just, like I said, sweep the rug on everything that you knew that was safe and secure, to just start something new. That's not something that very many people can do, especially moving and starting a business. I have to say, as a consultant, when someone calls me and says, oh, we want to move and start a business, I'm like, look, why don't you move, get settled, learn the area, and then start the business? And only if they really push back do I know that they have what it takes. Because a lot of people, when you explain it to them kind of rationally, they take the out and they do it. But those people who fight back, then that's the burning desire that I'm like, who am I? I'm not playing God with your life. If you can do all of this, I'm in. I'm your advisor. Let's go. So, I mean, it's an awesome and inspiring story in and of itself. And to then, now you're working with your wife, you're doing something that has impact. You probably wake up every day feeling energized and motivated.
Have you enjoyed the experience with the franchisor? Have they been, you know, responsive to you? And, like, have you found that this whole idea of being in business for yourself, but not by yourself, proves to be worth it?
[00:19:49] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:19:50] Speaker C: And let me just add something. Cause I do validation calls now for.
[00:19:55] Speaker D: Seniors helping seniors, and I just did one, like, a week ago, maybe a couple days ago.
[00:20:00] Speaker C: I'm not really quite sure, but.
And people ask, like, well, how did you.
[00:20:06] Speaker D: How did you do that?
[00:20:07] Speaker C: How did you eventually just say, I resign, and I'm gonna go for it? And when people tell their story, it sounds so heroic. Like they're just, you know, Superman and all that stuff. And I, and I told, I told this guy, I said, I said, well, you know, I sound very confident at this point, but what you don't know is that when I, when I, you know, you wire the check for the franchise fee or whatever, and when I, when I went to the bank to do that, back in Cincinnati, Ohio.
[00:20:45] Speaker D: I.
[00:20:45] Speaker C: Remember driving home from the bank and I was shaking so bad, I pulled over and the bank was five minutes from my house. I pulled over in a parking lot and literally threw up.
Just, just out of, out of, out of nerves, out of fear, out of doubt, out of every, no matter what.
[00:21:11] Speaker D: I was, you know, I just, and.
[00:21:13] Speaker C: I had to keep telling myself all the things I had heard, all the things I read, that fear is false evidence appearing real.
[00:21:21] Speaker D: Right.
[00:21:21] Speaker C: And that really true miracles only happen when you operate in faith. And faith is people think that if you believe, you believe, you believe, you believe, that equals faith. It's not until you actually take action.
[00:21:38] Speaker D: Do you release that faith to allow.
[00:21:41] Speaker C: True miracles to start happening.
[00:21:45] Speaker D: And sometimes it's in, I believe that.
[00:21:49] Speaker C: This chair I'm sitting in will hold me up, but it's not until I actually sit down in it that I show that I have true faith that it'll hold me up.
[00:21:57] Speaker D: And it's your action and reaction to everything.
[00:22:02] Speaker C: And when you walk around in life and you have the action that everything's going to be okay. You're calm, you're collective. It doesn't mean that you don't believe. It doesn't mean that you don't work hard to get to that point. But when you know that, you know that, you know that it's going to be okay, you start to take those steps. It doesn't mean that you still don't pull over and throw up every now and again.
[00:22:25] Speaker D: Right, or stay up, stay up at.
[00:22:27] Speaker C: Night to this worried, you know, worried sick. But it's to continually telling yourself, and it's not one time that I ever got to tell myself that. And then it ended up being okay. It was, it was every daily, it was, it was every, every day, multiple times a day, over and over, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. And one of those reasons that I knew that going back to what your.
[00:22:53] Speaker D: Original question was, was because of the.
[00:22:56] Speaker C: People I was meeting within the franchisor.
[00:23:01] Speaker D: And.
[00:23:04] Speaker C: We, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, we would not be where we are, anywhere near where we.
[00:23:09] Speaker D: Are.
[00:23:12] Speaker C: Without, without their help. And that includes.
So what was what I think this is. I don't know this for sure. I believe this is probably true for.
[00:23:22] Speaker D: Most franchisers, if not all.
I wanted to be an entrepreneur, and.
[00:23:29] Speaker C: I wanted the guidance, and I've always felt like seniors helping seniors.
[00:23:33] Speaker D: In my case, they always was.
[00:23:36] Speaker C: I knew they were there. If I needed the help. They had the help, but they let me do what I needed to do, too. Hey, here's some options.
You can decide if you want the help, we're here. If you don't, that's okay, too.
[00:23:53] Speaker D: It felt very unpressured.
[00:23:55] Speaker C: It felt like a partnership versus a.
[00:23:59] Speaker D: Management type of thing.
[00:24:03] Speaker C: And I didn't know this either.
It wasn't just the home office.
They started connecting me to other franchisees.
[00:24:13] Speaker D: That.
[00:24:15] Speaker C: Didn'T know me from anybody else and were, and we're running very successful.
[00:24:21] Speaker D: Businesses already, and they were taking time.
[00:24:24] Speaker C: Out to answer questions and walk me through it. And then we got down here to Florida.
[00:24:33] Speaker D: And I think we were here maybe a day or two, and one.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: Of the validation calls was with a guy who runs a very successful business.
[00:24:41] Speaker D: On the west coast of Florida, right?
[00:24:44] Speaker C: His name's Evan.
[00:24:45] Speaker D: And for seniors helping seniors. And it just so happens that he.
[00:24:52] Speaker C: Was from Columbus, Ohio, originally, and I was from Cincinnati. That's like an hour and 15 minutes north of Cincinnati. And so anyways.
[00:25:03] Speaker D: When I got down here, I had a question about seniors.
[00:25:07] Speaker C: Helping seniors, something about something. And I ended up calling his office.
[00:25:11] Speaker D: And that guy called me back, and we had a very long conversation.
[00:25:19] Speaker C: He called me back, we hung up, and then he called me back again. He was like, hey, I forgot to tell you this one thing.
[00:25:23] Speaker D: And I'm sitting there thinking you're like.
[00:25:26] Speaker C: My hero and you're taking time out to call me. And it's been like that with people all over the country within the franchises to just help out. I try to give back as much as I can now because I know how important that was to me.
But yes, they've been, they're very, very responsible for the success that we've had.
[00:25:54] Speaker A: Hey, daily Coach fans, if you're ready to begin your own journey to find the perfect franchise, please email me right now at enquireimdaily tv. My services are totally free for you. That's. Inquire at Kimdaily TV. Now back to the show.
[00:26:18] Speaker D: It's amazing.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: And a lot of that falls back to the leadership and that culture that they've built, obviously, inside this franchise. But there are many franchisors out there who do have that same kind of culture inside. I mean, I'm privy to see thousands of franchisors over the last 22 years, but they're not all like that, Mike. And so you really have found a special gem. And that's the true essence of why you want to be in business, in a franchise. It's more about the who than the what, right. It's more about the people that are there to guide and support and mentor you to the extent that you want that mentorship, because like you said, it's still your business to make or break. A good franchisor is not a dictator telling you exactly how to do everything and when to do it to where, you know, you just have to be a robot. You're a business owner who gets to bring your own creative energy, and that creative energy works to grow the entire brand because you may figure something and something out on your own that you're able to validate to other franchisees that now they can use. And that's the forever advancement of the franchise brand that the franchisor is hoping the franchisees will do together. Right. But franchisors who lead from that culture don't have to hope because it just naturally happens, you know, when you attract really good people into your brand, and then you lead from that culture of we, you know, we serve each other. We're all shareholders in the same brand, this is the outcome that you get. So, oh, my gosh, this is so amazing. I know that this episode will be so inspiring to so many other people out there. Mike, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I want to ask you one final question for those people that are listening to this episode who are where you were when you were in Cincinnati and feeling that feeling inside of you that something had to change.
What do you say to those people right now?
[00:28:20] Speaker D: Mike?
[00:28:22] Speaker C: I say you really have to go for it and believe in you. And when you start taking those steps.
[00:28:30] Speaker D: The right people show up and.
[00:28:37] Speaker C: You can succeed.
And there's people, in all sincerity, there's.
[00:28:43] Speaker D: People like Kim, Joe, Mike, people all.
[00:28:48] Speaker C: Over.
[00:28:51] Speaker D: That have been success happens when opportunity and preparedness meet, and that's the.
[00:28:57] Speaker C: Only time it happens.
[00:28:58] Speaker D: And so many times in life, opportunity goes by people. And because they haven't been preparing, they don't even recognize it.
[00:29:08] Speaker C: And I'll tell you a quick story to hopefully answer the question. And this is a true story.
[00:29:16] Speaker D: You know who Garth Brooks is, of course.
[00:29:18] Speaker C: Okay. I like Garth Brooks. Right. And I've known this story for a long time. And, and so how his career started was he was playing the bars. He was selling boots in Nashville and doing his thing just like probably dozens and dozens of other people in Nashville with a lot of talent.
And obviously he's from Oklahoma, and he moved from Oklahoma to go to Nashville. And several, several years into his move.
[00:29:51] Speaker D: Into Nashville, he was scheduled to be at a honky tonk to play.
[00:29:57] Speaker C: And I think he was like the fifth, 6th, 7th, 8th person scheduled to play at like 02:00 a.m. Or something like that.
[00:30:03] Speaker D: And he didn't even want to go.
[00:30:07] Speaker C: But his manager said, well, you told him you're going to be there, so you go ahead and go.
[00:30:10] Speaker D: So he went early, and he said.
[00:30:13] Speaker C: Well, if I'm going to go, I'll go early, and maybe they'll get me on early and I can get out of here and actually get a good night's sleep or whatever.
[00:30:22] Speaker D: Well, it just so happens that the person that was supposed to play second didn't show up.
So they said, hey, hey, kid, you.
[00:30:31] Speaker C: Want to go on? And he was like, sure.
The Columbia records was there that night to see the person that was supposed to do the second set.
[00:30:42] Speaker D: They saw Garth instead.
[00:30:45] Speaker C: And because he was preparing for how many years playing music and perfecting that, when that opportunity came, he didn't even know it. It was just a normal day and normal time in the world, right? But those things happen to all of us all the time.
And when you understand that and know that, they're going to come your way.
[00:31:07] Speaker D: Too, and you've been preparing.
[00:31:09] Speaker C: You've been preparing.
They're going to meet, and it's going to be the most beautiful thing that's ever happened to your life. And everybody that knows you, you're going to affect your kids, your kids kids.
[00:31:20] Speaker D: And so I say, you can do it, Mike.
[00:31:26] Speaker B: You're such a beautiful inspiration. Like, I'm the one who's the mindset coach, and I'm over here tearing up, listening to you. I'm so fired up.
It's no wonder you are so successful, because you speak truth, you live truth. You overcame yourself. It is absolutely so inspiring, and you're so spot on about those synchronicities in life. Columbia records did come to hear the second singer that night. They just thought his name was something else.
That's exactly the way that God had that set up. And thank God that Garth answered the plan, answered the call and went early.
It's so beautiful. Well, I am so inspired by your story today. For those who are out there who are equally as inspired, do what this man did. Follow Kim Daley get to my YouTube channel, get some inspiration, get some more education.
But when you are ready, do not delay. Follow the email on the screen right now if you are ready or reach out directly at inquireimdaily TV. That's inquireimdaily.
Mike, thank you so much again for being our special guest here today.
[00:32:42] Speaker D: Thanks, Kim.
[00:32:43] Speaker B: I appreciate you so much. And until next time, my name is Kim Daley and I want to be your daily coach.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: You can find more content just like this on my YouTube channel at Kimdaily TV. And if you're you inspired to take the next step to explore franchises matched to you, please email me right now at inquire at Kimdaily TV. That's enquire at Kimdaily TV.
