Hannah Hughes and Jacqueline Rodriguez, Georgia Highlands College
Lauren Ham, City of Acworth
Brooke Gunthrop, Fieldstone Partners Insurance
Chuck Burge, Airaoke
Daniel Cox, Goosehead Insurance
Dave Young, Command Wealth Management
Karen Delaun Knox, Relax, Sip & Steam
Pastor Bonnie, BJJewels, Etc.
Raymond Aguilar, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
Dr. Tyra Wingo, Legacy Launcher
Vanessa Mongello, The Connection House
Gary Carr, Banepoint
Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Lee, let’s chat a little bit about the virtue of actually using the service that you’re selling.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Yeah. I think that’s one of the biggest benefits at Business RadioX, is that we are actually using the service that we recommend our clients use. And by doing that, we’re able to kind of show our prospective clients where they are in our sales process, so they can see themselves using the same sales process with prospective clients on their own. And, by using the service, we’re walking the walk. We’re not just talking the talk.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:42] If we get clients by inviting prospects on radio shows, then it makes sense that the system really works. If we were getting clients by running Facebook ads, it wouldn’t make sense to sell radio shows if we need to buy Facebook ads to get clients. That doesn’t make any sense. Why would someone buy our service if we’re using a different service to get our own clients?
Lee Kantor: [00:01:06] So, I think there’s some integrity and there’s some kind of proof that our thing works by actually using the thing that we sell to help ourselves sell. So, I think that it’s worth investing in clients that use your service to get their clients to show them some love by using their service that whatever they sell in your business if that’s viable as well. So, I think it’s important for everybody to help everybody else out by each of us using the services that we sell to help each other kind of grow each of our businesses.
Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with BRX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, we talk a lot in our organization about this whole concept of serving. And we often will share with prospective clients and our expanded network. We’ll try to help them understand the why behind what we’re doing. And we’ll try to impress upon them, you know, we’re really trying to put a dent in the universe. We’re trying to change the way that free enterprise is viewed and is utilized while we’re here on this planet. We really do want to have deep and thorough impact. And we’ve kind of come to believe, you know, the shortest distance between the two points serve for impact.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:56] Yeah. I think that in life, you know, when you surround yourself with givers or people who serve, you just have a life that has more meaning. And you get away from the people that are the takers or more transactionally minded people. The people who serve tend to be more relationship driven that they believe that they can help their community by serving others. And I believe that when you surround yourself with more givers and people that are service minded, then you can build a community that can have a great impact, a gigantic impact well larger than any individual in that community could have. And then, you can really do amazing, impactful things.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:39] So, just remember, givers give your life more meaning and takers take away more of your energy. So, if you find yourself kind of feeling depleted or feeling that frustrated or burnt out, it might be that there’s too many takers in your world, and that you might want to surround yourself with more givers and more people who believe in service. And by helping other people, you’ll feel that that will give you more energy, that will kind of relieve some of the burnout that a lot of folks are feeling.
Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, competency, excellence, it can all be a moving target, man. And I think it’s important that we audit our own skills periodically and maybe, you know, at least every quarter.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:19] Yeah. I think it’s important to kind of really keep track of all your skills, all your superpowers, keep track of all the activities you’re doing and the services you’re providing to your clients. And by kind of writing it down and keeping it in front of you, what you’ll notice is that some of those superpowers and skills and activities you’re doing for clients are things that you’re taking for granted as just stuff you do that other people who don’t do what you do would pay handsomely for.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:51] So, I think that this is one of those things that if you keep track of all this stuff, you might be able to raise your rates, you might be able to kind of create new packages and new services out there that you can expand your revenue from. These are things that if you are doing right now for somebody that you just take it for granted that, “Hey, this is just what I do,” there’s other people out there that will pay for this if it’s framed correctly.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:21] So, by listing all this stuff out, by listing your skills, your activities, your services that you’re offering to people right now, you’re going to see something and you might say, “Oh, you know what? I’m going to just kind of carve this out and maybe this is going to be an upsell for the next person that I’m trying to serve.”
Lee Kantor: [00:01:38] So, you might be able to repackage some of the stuff that you’re doing right now as an upsell to other people if you kind of keep track of this stuff, because a lot of times you do so much work that you’re just taking for granted that other people will find valuable and will pay for.
Chris Creekmur, Owner Atlanta Drone Cleaning and Soft Washing Services.
Atlanta Drone Cleaning and Soft Washing Services specializes in the use of drones for high and low-pressure washing. Our services obtain the best possible results with well-trained, knowledgeable employees.
Follow Atlanta Drone Cleaning on Facebook.
Brock Tilley with Scrubs Soft Wash. We specialize in soft washing/pressure washing for commercial/residential properties.
Brody Moore with B. Moore Pressure Washing. Residential and commercial cleaning.
Marshall Helms with GA Pressure Washing. Your local choice for soft washing & pressure washing.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix
Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now here’s your host.
Stone Payton: [00:00:24] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Cherokee Business Radio. Stone Payton here with you this morning. And today’s episode is brought to you in part by the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors program, our ongoing small business initiative Defending Capitalism, promoting small business and supporting our local community. A special thank you to all of our Main Street warriors and of course, our 2023 Main Street Warriors title sponsor, Diesel David Inc. Please go check them out at Diesel David dot com. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast. First up on today’s show with Atlanta Drone Cleaning Mr. Chris Creekmur How are you, man?
Chris Creekmur: [00:01:09] Feeling great. How are you?
Stone Payton: [00:01:11] Stone I’m doing well. You’re looking good. You’re sounding good. I’ve been excited to have this special edition. We’re doing this on a monday instead of the typical Tuesday House show. Tell us a little bit, if you would, Mission purpose. What are what are you and your team out there trying to do for folks?
Chris Creekmur: [00:01:27] Man Well, the power of Washington industry, pressure, washing industry, how you want to call it. There’s a lot of guys, a lot of businesses starting out, a lot of people not really knowing a direction to go in maybe or niche to carve themselves into maybe just looking for guidance, looking for help. So the mission really is to collaborate in an industry where competition is fierce. A lot of guys down each other or don’t work together. I think the bigger mission and idea is to work together to collaborate and help each other out. That’s just how good humans should work, and I think the success is just increased by the more network you have. So let’s say you get a job you can’t do or you need help on, Hey, hey man, can you help me out? Or Hey, my trailer is not working. You want to do this job for me kind of thing? So it just really makes when you serve others, they want to serve you and then just kind of goes full circle, and then they can send you on that path, whether you continue your relationship or not. That’s all we can hope for.
Stone Payton: [00:02:24] Well, I got to tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation at Million Cups. You came in with this gizmo look like it was out of a science fiction movie. It was much bigger than anything I had ever seen in the in the drone category. That’s one of the tools that that that you deploy in the work that you do.
Chris Creekmur: [00:02:41] Yeah. Yeah. So, like I said, it’s just a tool. You’re not going to use a hammer to install a light bulb, are you? So you’re not going to use a drone to clean every single thing. But it is a high tech technology that’s been around for a couple of years now, and it’s just one of the tools that I use in my business and I can share with others and help them versus me kind of keeping it for myself. I decided to go out there and offer it to anyone else because there is a high cost to it. It’s not for everybody. It’s a very niche service and it has its target market.
Stone Payton: [00:03:11] So speaking of collaboration, do you find yourself working with people in the real estate arena because they’re trying to clean up houses or that kind of thing, or people who do video work for whatever reason? Do you find yourself working with folks like that as well?
Chris Creekmur: [00:03:27] So collaboration as far as clients go, I mean, I am putting myself in a position to do commercial and industrial work only, mainly because that’s what my tool is good for, right? Right. A lot of other guys may have a harder barrier to entry because you have higher costs as far as insurance need to go and all your back and stuff. But I mean, real estate agents can be great for just a curb appeal package like in the driveway, clean the front of the house, all that stuff. Someone looking to sell their home, someone looking to buy, and also just keeping it maintain. You keep the house clean. It’s going to maintain the paint and the coatings. The windows aren’t going to get dirty over time and be harder to clean.
Stone Payton: [00:04:03] How does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a guy like you? How do you get the new commercial clients?
Chris Creekmur: [00:04:11] Marketing for my business is very unique. The drone sells itself. It’s very simple. We just have a very soft approach and ask people, Hey, how can I help? This is what we offer, blah, blah, blah. And then people just open up like a book. It’s incredible because we’re not pressuring people. And honestly, I don’t care if they say no, but I love it when they say yes, because if they say no, then they’re not my client anyways. I’m not going to try and convince them otherwise if they want to use someone else. Cool. There’s plenty of other people that do great work. And once I show a video and just kind of explain how we can save liability costs, efficiency, all that stuff, that it really does kind of makes sense because there’s a lot of dangerous methods out there rappelling, getting a big, expensive crane scaffolding. All this stuff is becoming outdated as this new technology grows.
Stone Payton: [00:05:00] Now that you’ve been at this a while. What are you finding the most rewarding man? What are you enjoying the most about the work?
Chris Creekmur: [00:05:07] These guys sitting here next to me. It’s rewarding to help others out and not take all the work for yourself. I could easily market and try and dominate an area, but it’s just really. I don’t think that’s possible, in my opinion. You can be the biggest company, but there’s no way you can corner this industry. There’s there’s so much work for everybody and everyone can have a good piece of the pie and have a good life. They can make a good living. They can provide for their family, they can do all that stuff. So the most rewarding part is seeing other guys grow their business and help them out. And then we help each other out basically.
Stone Payton: [00:05:43] Fantastic. Well, let’s bring them into the conversation. Tell us who you brought with you man.
Chris Creekmur: [00:05:48] I got Brock Tilley here with Scrubs Soft Wash him and his dad have started an incredible business, and I’ve been able to help them out. We got Brody Moore with b. Moore Pressure Washing and then we got Marshall Helms, who’s the green thumb of the group. He started back in October and wants to provide a way to provide more financial freedom for his families, from what I understand.
Stone Payton: [00:06:11] So, Brock, I kind of hate to do this, but I’m going to do it anyway. I grew up in Pensacola, Florida. My dad was a heck of an athlete. Everybody in town knew him then. He was a high school basketball coach. Then he was a superintendent of schools. So I was asked all the time, Are you Pete Payton’s son? So I got to know any relation to Eric Tilley?
Brock Tilley: [00:06:28] Yeah, 100%. I love when people ask me that because my dad’s one of my best friends, but also he’s the mentor in my life helping me just with the whole business side, but also just grow as a person. So whenever I get asked all the time, but it’s I love that question because it’s like, yeah, that’s that. That is my dad. And I’m very fortunate to be able to go in to this company with him because he had a landscape company for 22 years and he sold it a couple of years back and I wasn’t going to college. I just graduated this past year and I was wanting to get into the workforce and I was fortunate enough to have him be like, Let’s let’s do it together. And he was kind of showing me the ins and outs and things that he picked up just from owning a landscape company for that long.
Stone Payton: [00:07:06] Well, that explains the biceps, too. I got to tell you guys, y’all can’t see this on the radio, but this guy looks better in a t shirt than any of the rest of us. So that explains No, I think the world of Eric. I don’t know him that well, but he is so well respected in this community and is doing such great work and helping so many folks out. So talk a little bit, though, about that support. I feel like that is so important, especially for a for a new entrepreneur to have some type of support system and how marvelous it is that it’s that close right there in the immediate family. Say more about that.
Brock Tilley: [00:07:36] Yeah, you’re right. It’s a big thing because so so many kids nowadays, especially young men, just don’t have the proper guidance. They don’t have that that father figure. Even if they do have a dad, they don’t they don’t have that relationship. And I mean, I thank God, really every day just for for the bond that we have, because it’s it’s unlike any bond that I ever had with any kid my age. It plays a big part in my success. But it also I mean, iron sharpens iron. So it’s he helps me, but I help him every day. So it’s a big part.
Stone Payton: [00:08:06] So how do you guys attack it? Do you do you have specific roles or do you kind of divide and conquer and go do the same thing out in the marketplace? Or how have you decided to approach executing?
Brock Tilley: [00:08:17] Yeah, so we got started around September. So it’s it’s newer, but as of now it’s been both of us cleaning whenever we find jobs and there’s been there’s been jobs when I go out alone and he’s he’s a lot of the back end stuff helping scale scale the company do it the right way because he’ll he’ll tell you with his landscape company he hit he hit his his max. You know what I mean. All the phone calls went to his phone. All the customers call his personal cell phone. So it was just he grew a successful landscape company, but he didn’t scale it to where to take it to the next level. And so he’s he’s kind of more that back in part to when eventually as we grow, when we grow how to mentor the the new technicians coming in, how to just just grow with the right way so that we don’t have to be out there spraying houses every single day.
Stone Payton: [00:09:08] Yeah. How did you get connected with Chris?
Brock Tilley: [00:09:10] So networking groups, there’s, there’s networking, there’s, there’s these groups that we, that, that we meet at every single week. There’s one in downtown Woodstock, one in downtown Canton, and one downtown ball ground. And my dad met Chris just through the groups, just through there. And, you know, Chris was you know, he was needed some help here or there. And he was kind enough just to ask me to come out for a few jobs. And he really helped, you know, show me the ropes, show me just how to how to do the work the right way. And so that was how we met.
Stone Payton: [00:09:42] Yeah. And when it comes to cultivating those relationships and really building those relationships further, the nice thing about all of those communities that you described, there are good brew houses and every one of those communities, right Chris?
Chris Creekmur: [00:09:54] Yes, sir. Get a plug for reformation. Yeah, that’s where we meet.
Stone Payton: [00:09:59] Fantastic. Well, thanks for joining us, man. I’m really looking forward to this conversation. I’ve got a thousand questions I’m going to ask you guys in a little bit. And I know there’s some things that you’ll probably share that I’m not even thinking of in our next guest is Marshall, if I got that right, talk to us, Marshall. And this is pretty new for you. Take me back to the beginning, man. What compelled you to get into this business?
Marshall Helms: [00:10:18] Yeah. So the story is pretty unique. I didn’t plan on getting into pressure washing when I did. I actually got let go of the company that I used to work for, that I was there for about eight, nine months, but I was already thinking about doing pressure washing for myself. And once I got like, oh, I was like, All right, well, this is what we’re doing now. So I kind of got pushed into the deep end on it. But back in October is when I really started researching everything because I had a bunch of free time at that point when I got let go. And I’ve slowly been learning a bunch about the industry and continuing to learn and still very new to the whole industry. But that’s really the short story of how I started. And I got to meet Chris at the Canton Business Club and he was actually, I think right next to me, which was so cool that, you know, another pressure washer that’s been in this game for a long time was standing right next to me. So I got to meet Chris and then Eric came right over to me and all three of us just hit it off and started talking, which was just so cool that my first ever club meeting was with those guys and I got to meet him and talk with him.
Chris Creekmur: [00:11:37] It’s funny, I want to add that I had no idea who he was and never seen him, and I just stood right next to him. And me and Eric usually stand together because we just, you know, but it’s just funny. Like he goes, Oh, my name is So-and-so with George Pressure washer. And I go, Oh, all right. It’s just kind of like we funny how we all find each other somehow and stand next to me. People are meant to talk to. So it was really cool when I met Marshall.
Stone Payton: [00:12:00] So, Marshall, what are you learning in terms of interacting with customers? Do you see some of the same sets of questions or maybe even misconceptions or myths that you have to bust about what their view is of what you can do? What you should do is I guess what I’m asking is, is there some education involved when you’re when you start to work with a new customer?
Marshall Helms: [00:12:22] Yes, there’s definitely a lot of education. And these guys can probably tell you more than I can. But in a little bit that I’ve learned, I’ve found that a lot of people don’t realize how dirty anything is. You start cleaning it.
Stone Payton: [00:12:35] Yeah, clean a piece of it, and then you see the rest, right?
Marshall Helms: [00:12:38] Yeah. And a lot of times people will ask you to come clean something like their driveway, and then you can point something else out while you’re there. And just recently, I cleaned a church and I said, I can clean your sign while I’m here as well. And they’re like, It’s dirty. And they came out and looked at it. You can see all this green on it, on the white background. So there is a lot of education in it that I’m learning as well. But the clients really never realize how dirty some things are.
Stone Payton: [00:13:09] But all right, let’s bring the headliner in. And you ready to talk to Brock? Brock, Lean in there and tell us a little something about your business, man. How long have you been at it, and how did you get started?
Brody Moore: [00:13:19] So I started back in October of 2021, and it was a straight like side hustle. I was just wanting to do something different than working for someone. I was working with my dad, doing body body repair on Teslas and stuff like that. And so I was I wanted to do something different. And so he was like, Hey, I’ll pay you to pressure, wash my driveway. You just go buy a little service cleaner at Home Depot and I’ll pay you for it. I was like, okay, So I did that and I did his patios and found that it was really satisfying. So I took that same server cleaner and a server or a pressure washer from his house and went down the street and started knocking on doors. And sure enough, in four or five weeks I did, I would say probably 20 jobs. And I was like, Wow, good.
Stone Payton: [00:13:59] Lord.
Brody Moore: [00:14:00] Yeah, this is profitable. And so I found I was like enjoying it and I enjoyed talking to new people and meeting new people. So that’s when I went and got a full LLC and insurance and all that stuff. And in December of 21 and have been at it ever since.
Stone Payton: [00:14:13] And how was Dad about losing his employee or did you still help him out?
Brody Moore: [00:14:17] So there’s been a couple of times where I’ll go up to the shop. I know everybody in the shop, so I’ll go and help out and stuff like that. But he was honestly supportive. He was like, You got to go do your own thing, make your own path in the world. And so he was sad losing me because it was a great bonding experience for us. But then again, he he was excited for me to start my own journey.
Stone Payton: [00:14:33] So we’ve talked a little bit about collaboration. Can one or more of you guys share an example or two of how you’ve come together, either with someone in this room or someone else to to collaborate on something?
Brody Moore: [00:14:45] I mean, Chris is shot. I mean, I know me and Brock work. I don’t I’m not sure about Marshall yet, but I mean, we’ve done probably, what, four or five jobs together. So for. In the couple of months we’ve known each other.
Chris Creekmur: [00:14:56] Yeah, I had one job come up. It was multiple properties. I wanted it done really fast, so I reached out to Brody and I don’t do what’s called surface cleaning or flat work. So these guys offer that. I don’t.
Stone Payton: [00:15:06] That’s great.
Chris Creekmur: [00:15:07] It’s great for me to plug in with them because I can get the job, sub them out, they can get them. So that’s where I called Brody and I was like, Hey, man, I got this one project I need help with can be there. So it was great because he was there and it’s kind of a funny story because we went to this site and usually I look for water spigots and water sources so you can fill your tanks up. You don’t want to fill them up and drive, wears out your trailer and all that stuff.
Stone Payton: [00:15:30] So that makes sense.
Chris Creekmur: [00:15:31] Anyways, we get there, there’s no accessible water source. They’re all turned off for whatever reason. I don’t know. There’s like no store owners willing to help us out. So where Brody worked, you used to work across the street from with his dad, like he just mentioned is the shop that, you know, he used to work at. So he is. Hey, man, you know, there’s a shop across the street. I’ll contact the owner, see if we can get water there. So just like a beautiful moment, because if I never would have asked them, I would have been in a really bad spot on that job. So that just proves the power of collaboration right there. And then Brock, I brought him out on a couple of first jobs. The first time he saw me work was with a drone. He’s probably like, What in the world is this industry like? Do I need to get one of these? Like, so it’s really cool to show him the technology I have and the processes and then we’ll do the same for Marshall to eventually we’ll get there.
Stone Payton: [00:16:20] So. Brock, I don’t know if I asked you before or not. I know I asked Chris, What are you enjoying the most, man? What’s the most rewarding for you about all this?
Brock Tilley: [00:16:30] Obviously just making the house shine so satisfying, but it’s just, it’s always just seeing the customer’s face after after it’s clean. That’s that’s always just one of the best parts. And because one of the things we try and do with every single job is we think of one thing that, that we can go above and beyond. So like, we won’t tell them that, that we’re cleaning this one thing, but we’ll find something at the house like usually the mailbox or if they have like, like a little like stone pathway, we’ll just like, throw that in. If it looks super moldy or dirty, we’ll just clean that just without without them knowing. Just because they’re like, Oh, I didn’t know it was that dirty. So we always try and find something some way to go above and beyond that, take that extra step.
Stone Payton: [00:17:12] I love that we call it surprise and delight here at the Business RadioX Network. And I mean, it just has so much power and it feels good to do it, right? Yeah, that seems neat. All right. So what’s next for you in your business? Have you got some grand plans to to create the Tilly pressure Washing Empire?
Brock Tilley: [00:17:31] I mean, we got some awesome some awesome jobs lined up. We have this this nice pool contract that we’re cleaning, like a bunch of pool furniture, getting all all these all the pools ready to be.
Chris Creekmur: [00:17:45] How do you guys get that?
Brock Tilley: [00:17:47] How do we get that? We’re actually my dad and I. So we live in we live close to the original community. And this past summer we were swimming in the pool as a four hour workout. We were swimming laps.
Stone Payton: [00:17:57] With your shirts off. I’m sure I’ve seen these pics.
Brock Tilley: [00:18:00] Swimwear, shirts on is uncomfortable.
Chris Creekmur: [00:18:01] It’s embarrassing. Don’t stand next to them when you have your shirt.
Stone Payton: [00:18:03] Yeah, I get it.
Brock Tilley: [00:18:05] And so the people who take care of the pool, they’re actually you know, we struck conversation with. Somehow he was passing by and actually said, hey, you know, you look good. He said. So we just struck conversation with him and he told us that he’s got over 170 different pool locations across Georgia, and they’ve all done it in house the past ten years. However long they’ve been in business, they’ve they’ve done it all in house. They’ve sent out a crew of their own people to go and clean up all the equipment and cleaning out some of the bathrooms and set out all the furniture, getting it ready for for when the pools open. And he was like, this is the first year we’re going up. We’re going to try to, you know, branch it out or give it to somebody else, see how it works. And we’re still working through all of the details with them and everything. But yeah, that’s that’s that’s that’s one of the next things that we’re trying to do.
Stone Payton: [00:18:54] Sounds promising. Man Yes, sir. So, Marshall, what are some of the big unknowns? Man What are some things you got to get figured out to keep keep on this trajectory? Do you have a lot of questions about anything from marketing to the the operations side of the business? What’s what? What’s on your mind at this point?
Marshall Helms: [00:19:13] There’s a lot of things that are on my mind right now just being so no, I’m trying to be a sponge to everything that I can. I really have tons of questions and things I’m just trying to figure out and really just have to fail to figure things out sometimes and then try and ask these guys here if they’ve ran into these problems so that I can try and prevent it. Yes, we have, you know, learn, learn quickly. But there’s nothing really right now. It’s kind of just everything. And since I’m a one man show, my wife helps me as well. But just as these guys know, you wear a ton of hats, you do a lot.
Brody Moore: [00:19:54] So and destroy some clothes with some bleach, that’s for sure.
Chris Creekmur: [00:19:57] Get some good clothes. Yes, sir. Yeah, that’s a budget item.
Marshall Helms: [00:20:00] Yeah. So nothing specific, but just trying to be a sponge to the industry.
Stone Payton: [00:20:04] So what was that like? If you don’t mind my asking, Coming home to your wife and saying, No, no, got laid off, but I’m not going to go get another regular job. We’re going to do this business thing. What was that conversation like?
Marshall Helms: [00:20:15] She was on board for it, for sure. It took about two weeks or something for me to be like, I think we should go in this direction. And I continue to apply to other jobs. But I’d say about a month and a half later is when I finally made the decision and the Lord made it really clear to me that that’s the route that I needed to go. So that’s what I did. It was a clear sign I forgot, but. I never. I’ve always wanted to go back to entrepreneurship. When I was a teenager, I used to do a landscaping business. It was it was small. It was just myself. But I love doing it. And ever since then I’ve wanted to get back into it and I kind of got forced to go back into it. But so far I’m loving it.
Stone Payton: [00:20:58] Yeah. So, Brody, you mentioned some wardrobe being destroyed. Any other failures, challenges, mistakes that you’ve made that have stuck with you? And you might you might share with the next entrepreneur.
Brody Moore: [00:21:11] So having one branded clothing makes you look more professional. And then but also when I started out, I was destroying some of my good clothes. Like I had a $50 Carhartt hoodie that now looks like a bad elementary school project because of the bleach. And I was wearing nice jeans. And so I went to Wal mart and bought the cheap Wrangler jeans and wore those for a while. But definitely having the right clothes, the one keep you dry, and then also just to keep you comfortable. So because you can destroy clothes quick in this industry, that is for sure.
Stone Payton: [00:21:44] I’ll bet. So in terms of collaborating and helping each other out, and maybe this is more of a Chris question, but I’m opening it up to everybody. Are there some things that are not actually executing the work, but more the operations, the planning, the the running, the business side of the the business that that you’ve come to to learn or just really critical and important and people need to know this and and you need to have it kind of carved out.
Chris Creekmur: [00:22:12] It’s a loaded question. It’s hard to answer. The one off answer. So I can say this. It’s everyone has their own journey. And I think you go through that journey and you’re going to fail. You’re going to fail a lot. But it’s not how you fail. It’s not how you fall down. It’s how you get back up, you know, how are you spending the days? How are you spending time behind closed doors That’s going to reflect what you’re doing outside when you’re on the job, when you’re talking to customers, when you’re at these networking meetings, when you just find yourself like the day to day habits, you start building and growing on and you start realizing, Oh, well, I tried, that didn’t work. I got those clothes. Maybe I should try something a little cheaper because I want to raise my marketing budget, you know, or how do I get to the next better equipment? You know, how do I sell the big jobs? It’s all. It’s all mentality, man. It all starts and ends in your mentality. And unless you’re like Brock and his and his dad, where your marketing strategy is just to show off your ripped bodies and get these concerns. So apparently we just got to work on ourselves, guys. Gosh. But no, it’s all mentality, man.
Chris Creekmur: [00:23:11] And it breaks down to how you talk to yourself because that’s going to reflect how you talk to customers. You know, how your. Building value. How you’re saying you’re going to get stuff done. How do you constitute that price you’re going to charge? Because we’re not cheap. You know, our equipment is expensive. We have costs. We’re a business, right? And at the end of the day, we have to think like businessmen versus just pressure washers going out to clean a driveway for the cheapest price. That’s not how you stay in business for a long time. So really it just comes down to mentality. I’ll say that again and again. And for me, being able to change mine over the past three years, being able to a point where I can give my knowledge and not worry about. You know, detrimentally. My success or my business was a big, big, big obstacle because like I said in the beginning, a lot of guys keep the secrets or whatever, you know, it’s themselves. And I just don’t believe that’s how you should operate. So I think that just giving, giving, giving and walking on faith like these guys have said is. Just take an action, too. You know, you can’t cross the finish line unless you start somewhere.
Stone Payton: [00:24:17] I just so admire that, that ethos of wanting to serve, wanting to help other people. Is this something that evolved in you or have you always kind of approached life and business that way?
Chris Creekmur: [00:24:28] Definitely did not always approach it like this. I worked in restaurants for a long time and being a chef is very cutthroat. It’s very toxic environment depending on what type of restaurant you’re in. And I’ve worked on fast food from Subway up to nicest steakhouse you can work out in Colorado, possibly. And during that time, as a chef, I kind of had to change my mentality as I grew through the ranks. And I had to start sharing my knowledge and what I learned in order to get to that position. But it was still like, you know, I’m going to keep this. I’m going to be very strict and pungent and to the point and a lot of swearing. So I’m not going to do that here. We’re going to keep it nice and clean. But yeah, to that point, it really evolved once I started my own business and I’m like, man, how do I how do I grow it? Because I knew there’s things I didn’t want to do that other guys offered. Yeah. And getting to that point does take time. And it takes courage to be vulnerable. And being vulnerable is scary because people then see that as a weakness. But I think it’s a true strength. And the more people that do it, I think the more this industry can thrive and people can rely on each other and collaborate and make sure pricing stays where it should be. And, you know, for example, there’s a chemical company that opened up up the road. Both these guys like, Hey, man, you hear about this right in the backyard? I was like, Yep, that’s awesome. You know? So just little tidbits, information sharing that and saying, Hey, we got each other’s back is really cool.
Stone Payton: [00:25:52] Absolutely.
Brock Tilley: [00:25:54] Well, I mean, it’s it’s just nice to have and having the friendships that we all have because. Like like Chris said. Little the little bits of advice that that we can all give each other just it’s better than having enemies, you know what I mean? Because if you’re not friends with us or not us, but like, if you’re not friends with one another or kind and think of all the good things, good opportunities you can miss out on. So it’s it’s nice just having the bond of relationship that we all have.
Chris Creekmur: [00:26:22] Yeah. Yeah. It’s not all, you know, we go to these networking events and you’re not going to do business with every single person. It’s impossible. So I think to remain at a relationship mindset versus approaching everything transactionally, you know, these guys are my friends now and I it’s awesome. Like, I can’t wait to grow with them and see what they do with their business and also start hanging out, maybe going to the pool, wearing my shirt, but I’m going to keep bringing that.
Brock Tilley: [00:26:49] Oh gosh.
Chris Creekmur: [00:26:49] But no, it’s, you know, and then we got friends like Diesel David, who runs an amazing diesel shop right down the road. By the way, if you have a truck, go visit him. He’s great. You know, you start meeting these awesome people in the community. What’s so funny, you start meeting these other people in the community and it’s not all transactional. It’s about just building relationships that may lead to friendship. They don’t. They pour into you and you are able to pour into others. And it’s just that’s what it’s about.
Stone Payton: [00:27:15] And Dave’s pretty fit. I don’t know about Diesel. I don’t know if I’d call him Diesel, but he’s pretty fierce Diesel. So Brock, I got to believe with Eric involved, you guys must have the operations side of of your enterprise button down, right?
Brock Tilley: [00:27:30] Yes, sir. And that, that that was where Chris played a big role into our company just because the knowledge that I was able to learn with him over the summer I was able to imply that with us, with, with our company because my dad yeah, he landscape but he still he still didn’t know soft washing or pressure washing, you know what I mean. He, he just knew the business side of it so that, that helped a lot. And I mean our, our goal, our main mission is just to. Help help kids who kind of need like that, that middle stepping stone in life, who don’t necessarily know what it is they’re wanting to do after high school or what they’re wanting to do. You know, if whether it’s college or not, we we want to be be that be like that mentor for those kids. Help them just teach, help teach them just good relationship skills, communication skills, showing up on time, doing the right thing when no one’s watching. That’s that’s kind of our goal for the whole company.
Stone Payton: [00:28:26] All right. So I mentioned I had some questions. Here’s my first one. I don’t understand the difference between pressure washing, soft washing the the all these different I hear different terms. Can you guys break that down for me?
Brody Moore: [00:28:42] So pressure washing is worth a higher sigh. So I mean, like when you service clean concrete or a pressure wash, a harder surface, you’re going to be using more pressure. But with soft washing it, I would say the CI of a of a like a garden hose almost. But you’re using a chemical to get rid of mold, mildew, algae, anything like that. And so with like siding, vinyl siding is very delicate. So if you use a high pressure, you can end up damaging the paint on the siding or even splitting the actual siding. And so using the technique called soft washing allows you to effectively clean a roof house, anything of that nature in a safe manner. So I mean, pressure washing is shingle roof will destroy the roof. There’s a lot of people out there that will actually just pressure, wash a roof, and then you need to get a new roof because it’s that destroyed. So Chris has taught me a lot about using different percentages on chemical and different soaps to use and how to properly clean a roof and and siding of a house and all that stuff. Well, pressure washing a driveway is really where I started, and that’s where I really the roots of my company is, is I completely started with driveways and a whole lot of concrete sidewalks, curbs, all that stuff. But I still learn something new. Brock and his dad did something different than I normally do. They go back side to side versus forward and backwards, so there’s a whole lot of different things you can do as far as learning. And so that’s one thing that’s great about having these guys is even someone who’s been doing it a while because they can learn something new every day. So the different processes, there’s a lot of different ways to do it.
Stone Payton: [00:30:17] So yeah, and every situation is different, right? Every it there’s different situations require different techniques, different tools. And if you’re on a job, you may need some of both or all of these, right? Because I’m right on the driveway, my sidewalk, my roof, my son, I just had this this, this premonition of a nightmare scenario where I go to a Home Depot or Lowe’s and rent the pressure washer and I come home and I tear up my siding, aside from is just hard work and I’d have to keep my shirt on.
Chris Creekmur: [00:30:51] Yes, keep your shirt on.
Stone Payton: [00:30:52] Right. So, I mean, that’s one of a bunch of reasons to let the professionals do it right. Stay in your lane and let the pros come out and talk you through it.
Chris Creekmur: [00:30:59] My favorite thing when I used to knock doors and do a lot of residential in the beginning of my favorite thing and housewives would say, Oh, my husband’s got a power washer, he can do it. Oh, okay, well, here’s my card. If you guys need help and you drive by those houses and they never do anything like you said, it’s like, why? Why do that work? If you have if you don’t have the right equipment, it can take hours versus hiring a professional company. Come in and do it less than an hour and they’re going to charge you because that values equipment is not cheap.
Brock Tilley: [00:31:29] And I mean, also another thing that that what’s what’s nice about having both the being able to pressure washing and soft wash is what we can do with the driveways we call it pre treating the driveways. So we put some some of the chemical down on the.
Stone Payton: [00:31:43] Driveway and I don’t know the first thing about I wouldn’t know what chemical they may not even sell it to me.
Brock Tilley: [00:31:47] Yeah well I know a lot of people would just just do pressure and water on driveways and not that that’s a bad thing, but if you don’t take your time with it and if you don’t go insanely slow, you’ll you’ll I call them wispy, you’ll just get like a little wispy on the driveway. And this is circular, little spinny. And that looks awful whenever it’s done.
Brody Moore: [00:32:05] Yeah, I see it most at commercial properties because there’s people who will go super fast and they’ll go down and try to rush through it and make the money, but they’re not doing it a quality way. And so, yeah, seeing that as the worst thing ever.
Brock Tilley: [00:32:18] And when, when you, when you pre-treat it with that chemical, you spray it on there, it just helps pool all the dirt, all the mold. And then, then you can really not fly, but you can go a lot quicker once, once the chemical has been sitting on there. I mean I’ll never forget that one. Chris and I did a job together. He was cleaning a roof and I was out of chemical. Like I couldn’t I couldn’t find any. I was out. And so he was able to spray some of his chemical down on the driveway. And then I was able to go over it. And it just I mean, it was beautiful afterwards, but.
Chris Creekmur: [00:32:46] It’s like, So can a dish. Yes. It easier to clean.
Brock Tilley: [00:32:48] Yes. Yeah, that’s that’s a great way to describe it.
Stone Payton: [00:32:50] So how often should we be doing this? Like like my home. How often should I be doing the roof, the. Sidewalk that kind of deciding is it or does it vary?
Brody Moore: [00:33:00] I’d say it depends on a lot, depending on the shading of your house. If there’s a lot of trees around your house and you’re going to want to do it more often, if your house is open in the sun, there’s not going to be as much of you don’t have to do it as often, I would say. Don’t you all agree? Yeah.
Marshall Helms: [00:33:12] Yeah.
Brock Tilley: [00:33:13] Besides that north side, that north side of the house is always the moldy. Oh, yeah. That was one thing Chris taught me.
Stone Payton: [00:33:18] Now, why is that?
Brock Tilley: [00:33:19] Do we know the sun, how the sun rises? And you know what I mean. There’s one side of the house that’s in the shade a lot more than the rest of the house.
Stone Payton: [00:33:27] How about that?
Chris Creekmur: [00:33:28] Yeah. 99% of roofs that you see are dirty. It’s on the northern side.
Stone Payton: [00:33:32] On the north side, I’ll be north. And same thing with commercial properties. If they’re more shaded and have more trees and all that, then it’s going to need attention more often.
Brody Moore: [00:33:41] Oh yeah. I mean, so like Brock was saying the north side and there I’ve got, I’ve been on a big commercial project over in Roswell and they have six roofs that are wanting cleaned and all of the roofs. There’s not a whole lot of trees around them, but all of the roofs on the north side need to be cleaned. They’re very, very dirty and they haven’t they’ve probably never done them because I had talked to the property manager and they were like, We’ve never done them. So they’re wanting to get them done at some point here in your future?
Stone Payton: [00:34:06] Well, sure.
Chris Creekmur: [00:34:08] I think education is just the biggest thing that I’ve learned that provides value to your clients. The more you can educate them and not really upselling, but just like Marshall is saying, like you see something, say something, what’s the worst thing it’s going to happen is no, okay, whatever. Maybe next time. But educating them on how cleaning an annual cleaning or bi annual cleaning can really help protect the paint can make things last longer. It just looks great. You know, you don’t want your customers coming into a dirty multi building, right? So it’s all about mentality and appearance of how they just show respect to their business and it’s a write off. So there’s there’s plenty of benefits to think about. And then you got window cleaning which can be done to obviously you want to look out clean windows. So there’s a lot a lot of things that go into it and. It can be seen as a lot of esthetic or preventive maintenance.
Stone Payton: [00:34:58] So say more about sales and marketing. Anybody on the panel here? There’s what you do to get into the initial conversation. And I want to I’ve got a couple of questions about how to really network properly here in just a moment. But so there’s that initial conversation. But then it sounds like for you guys, some of it is on site being seen in the neighborhood, being seen at the commercial property, and then how you conduct yourself on site and striking that balance. You don’t want to be like the I was going to say, the Jiffy Lube guy. I guess they’re never going to get a sponsorship here. But sometimes when I go to like the Jiffy Lube, I feel like all they’re doing is trying to sell me the next thing and the next thing you want. You don’t want to necessarily come off like that, but you want to provide the best value you can. So yeah, speak to that a little bit. The whole sales and marketing, the whole sales and marketing thing.
Chris Creekmur: [00:35:47] Chris wants to go.
Marshall Helms: [00:35:48] I’ll touch on. I don’t have much to give because I’m still trying to figure it out. But for me it’s kind of just been everything. I’ve been going after people on Facebook, Instagram, talking to people in person.
Stone Payton: [00:36:00] So.
Marshall Helms: [00:36:02] I’ve tried to exhaust everyone that I know, everyone that my family knows, and I’m getting to the point where I need to start doing ads and talking to these guys here and see what has worked for them. Because I’m only three months into it. I’m so green to to it all. So just trying to learn and do what I can right now.
Brock Tilley: [00:36:23] Another good way is just going out on a sunny day in neighborhoods, driving around, and when you see someone outside, just stop rolling on your window and be like, Hey, can I give you a free estimate? Who’s going say no to a free estimate? You know what I mean? Yeah, Not I mean, so and just. That’s that’s that’s that’s a great way because people see your logo, see your truck, and it’s just getting out there, getting your name out there. Even if they say no, it’s still just they’ll remember you.
Brody Moore: [00:36:47] So all these networking groups that we go to, I mean, there’s been a lot of them that I mean, between meeting Chris and getting jobs through him and then other real estate agents and all that type of things, networking, getting your name out there that way is a very beneficial way. I started to go back in the networking groups, I think back in August or so, and since then my business has exploded. Oh really? It’s helped out a lot with meeting people and getting my name out there and all that stuff. And then also Google my business, having the the reputable company and having the five star reviews and all that stuff. It shows that you do good work and people are happy with your work. You put photos up there before and after pictures of your work and stuff like that. That helps that a lot as well.
Chris Creekmur: [00:37:33] Credibility. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Referrals. Credibility. I mean, sales and marketing. Everyone’s got to figure out what works for them based on what they’re trying to really do. You know, in the beginning, I knew I wanted to do roof cleanings because honestly, that’s where the highest ticket item is. And from my opinion, I think that’s the best way to get into someone’s house. Say, Hey, yeah, your roof is dirty. It’s very obvious. Also, did you think about this and this and this? And usually you can upsell them and say, Hey, this is dirty. And it’s very easy to point those things out once you have that proper knowledge on how to do it. It just takes a little bit of crawl, walk, run mentality of I’m going to start here and work my way up. So, I mean, I exhausted all my friends and family and referrals are king, you know, word of mouth. And I plugged in with property managers and roofers and people that maybe could benefit from my service by adding on to theirs.
Stone Payton: [00:38:22] There you go.
Chris Creekmur: [00:38:23] So it works out good in the beginning.
Brock Tilley: [00:38:25] Well, and I know a lot of people, too, don’t even know that that roof cleaning is even an option. It will be like.
Stone Payton: [00:38:32] I never heard of it until I moved here, right?
Brock Tilley: [00:38:34] Yeah. And it’s like you can spend ten over $10,000 on getting a whole new roof, or you can spend under 1000, or maybe right out of 1000. How dirty, How big? To get it clean, it’s going to look good as new. So it’s still trying to get that that word out there. So many people aren’t familiar with soft washing. It’s newer, but it’s about 5050. But people I’ve talked.
Chris Creekmur: [00:38:54] To, certain pressure washing is known by the masses. It’s really I hate it, to be honest. But I mean, once you understand, like what it is and what it actually accomplishes versus what people think it is, is a whole nother a whole nother thing. And like, there’s really not much data. On if the roof is affected by this algae, if it is a detriment to its lifespan until it turns into like lichen or moss in a very later stage. But it’s mainly esthetics and people want their houses looking good. So that’s really the kind of clients that we go after, is people that are proud of their houses, proud of their properties and really don’t mind spending the money because you have other guys out there promoting very cheap services and that kind of puts a bad taste people’s mouths and they go out there and they leave the lines, they leave the swirly, they leave the whatever.
Brody Moore: [00:39:39] The $99.
Chris Creekmur: [00:39:40] Guy. Yeah, yeah. It’s, you know, the bait and switch method where they say, Oh, it starts at this. And then they come in there and they give you $700 quotes like, oh, not most, or they actually do it for 100 bucks. And I just don’t see how they stay in business long term.
Brock Tilley: [00:39:52] And like Chris said, our equipment is expensive. I mean, you could totally get a guy who with with a brush and a bucket of soap can get up on your roof and scrub it and it’s going to take hours and full days worth of work. But you can do it for 100 bucks or you get the 3000, $4,000 equipment and you stand on the ground and you shoot your chemical 25 feet up in the air and you’re going to clean it a lot faster and better. And it’s just it’s just quality.
Chris Creekmur: [00:40:16] Well, it’s a liability to, you know, you fall off someone’s roof. Who’s liable?
Stone Payton: [00:40:20] Homeowner did not know that.
Chris Creekmur: [00:40:24] Yep.
Stone Payton: [00:40:25] So on the networking front, it sounds like you guys have really cracked the code on on utilizing those platforms to build real relationships, build the credibility and connect with the with the community. And I got to believe there are folks who try to do the networking and it doesn’t work out for them. So how do you approach that? Is part of it. Yeah, go to the big group, but make sure that you connect with people one on one or and further, how do you guys actually approach the networking?
Brock Tilley: [00:40:59] Yeah, so you have to. Go outside your comfort zone. And for a lot of people that’s hard because no one wants to be uncomfortable. But you have to be uncomfortable if you want to grow and find those ways to meet one on one. Those people aren’t always going to come up to you to meet, so you’re going to have to step out of your comfort zone. You have to walk up and be like, Hey, I want to talk with you and get to know you better. Let’s go get some coffee. Let’s go, let’s let’s go get some lunch. And that’s that’s that’s not easy for everybody, but the ones who it is, you can tell the ones who do step outside of their comfort zone. The ones who do do the hard stuff.
Chris Creekmur: [00:41:38] It shows Brody and I met for the first time. He just walked up to me, was like, Hey, man, we’re talking right now. I’m like, okay, all right. So, no, it was funny. We just ended up talking. He had a few questions and we met at Business Club, by the way, Wednesdays 8 to 9 a.m. at Reformation by the mill. And he walked over to me, asked me a few questions, and he’s like, Hey, man, you have some more time. So I think we spent like an hour and a half hour talking easily and at least, Dude, bro. All right, come on, I got to go. But it was just great. Like, he was just so eager to to ask questions and so willing and open to hear what I had to say. And I was like, Man, it’s awesome that I can provide an impact. On him. So who else can I provide that impact for? And like there’s one on ones is really where you see the magic happen and you start to get better with your communication skills. You start getting better at being comfortable with being uncomfortable and kind of growing outside your comfort zone. Like Brock was saying, that’s like, I think that’s the biggest thing. Just walk up to someone, Hey man, I think your story is really cool. I want to hear about it.
Stone Payton: [00:42:40] Well, you bring up a very important point. I think when you are doing these one on ones and you’re building and strengthening those relationships, the the the mindset and the focus should also largely be centered on what can I do to help this person and not how can I, you know, WANG Dangle my way into another another gig, right? I mean, that’s important that that that we listen to their story and try to figure out a way to help them, whether it involves our thing or not. Would you all agree with that?
Chris Creekmur: [00:43:09] 100%? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Brock Tilley: [00:43:11] My dad said it best. I mean, networking group is just a bunch of professional firm makers. Go there to make friends, meet people. Yeah. And in return, you, you, you get business for them and you get business for yourself. So you make money making friends.
Chris Creekmur: [00:43:25] So it’s also fun to, like, learn other people’s business and you really tune in and listen to what their needs are and you can provide a referral for them. You can provide yeah, you can get insight. It’s just, I don’t know. I love it.
Brody Moore: [00:43:37] Well, go into those networking groups. As we all know, tax season’s coming around, so you are able to find people who can help you with your taxes. And then if you end up wanting to buy a home, there’s mortgage people, real estate agents. So having those connections outside of our business will definitely help you there, too. Just being able to have the connection. Oh, I know a guy for that. Oh, I know our guy for that. They’ll always be able to help.
Stone Payton: [00:43:56] When a lot of times I find it when I’m talking to someone, I get to hear all about their origin story, all about their struggle, kind of, you know, if there was a tipping point or something that that caused them to create a new beginning and you really do get to know them. Also, I’ve learned quite a bit about people’s causes, causes that are really important to them. And when you reach out and genuinely try to serve them in that way, that’s that’s helpful too. And then some of them are leading causes, you know, like some of them will be an executive director of this cause or or that charity. And that always, aside from the intrinsic rewards, from helping out a cause, I mean, it just feels good.
Chris Creekmur: [00:44:33] Yeah. Giving back to your community is. This just feels good. Yeah. It’s a it’s a thing everyone should try and practice. That’s something I’m implementing in my business, and I just can’t wait to see where it goes.
Stone Payton: [00:44:44] Yeah, And it almost always, almost never in a straight line, it feels like. But it seems to always come back to you in some way, like ten fold. Somehow, someway.
Chris Creekmur: [00:44:53] Write the laws of the universe are funny men and I don’t question it. I just, I abide by them and I try not to break them. But I think this past year I developed a law of giving. And like you said, it returns to an ex, whether it’s, you know, financially or mentally or spiritually. Whatever you’re putting out there in the universe is it’s going to come back and it’s going to find you because you’re putting it out there. You put it out there, you’re going to keep trying and going to keep trying, and eventually you’re going to see those results somewhere, some way. You just don’t know when.
Brock Tilley: [00:45:26] The only way you want is if you give up.
Stone Payton: [00:45:28] That’s right.
Marshall Helms: [00:45:29] Truth.
Stone Payton: [00:45:30] Truth. Well, Brock mentioned a moment ago something about professional friend makers. I feel like that I and our listeners have four good friends here. I really appreciate all of you, all of you coming in and sharing your story. Don’t be a stranger. Come back. Come back with a delighted client. Sometime we’ll talk about their business too, if their or their calls and learn a little bit about their story and talk about the collaboration, the work together. Before we wrap, though, I want to make sure that we get everybody’s contact information so our listeners know how to get in touch with you, even if they just want to have a conversation about anything that we’ve talked about and of course that they’d like to engage your services. And we’ll start with with Brody. Where are you? What’s the best way to connect with you?
Brody Moore: [00:46:14] Man I’m on Facebook, I’m on Instagram, and then my mobile number is 4049982088. Also be more pressure washing at gmail.com. Any of those ways to reach out to me.
Stone Payton: [00:46:24] I love it when people give their phone number. This is a guy that is willing to connect and have a real relationship. That’s fantastic. Marshal. Where can we find you, buddy?
Marshall Helms: [00:46:33] Yeah, anyone can find me at G. A pressure washing on Facebook, Instagram. I’m working on the dot com part. Don’t have the website up yet, but working on that and phone number is 6782626979 17. And you can get me at a g pressure wash 22 at gmail.com.
Stone Payton: [00:46:57] All right Brock.
Brock Tilley: [00:47:01] Yeah we’re on Instagram and Facebook. It’s scrub soft wash and look us up Google Scrub Soft Wash LLC. Our phone number mobile number is 4706806464. Thank you, guys.
Stone Payton: [00:47:17] Well, and also, I was checking while we were talking on GoDaddy we are ripped dot com is available. So if you want like a short URL.
Brock Tilley: [00:47:27] Yeah. Hey we do clean, but also if you want to walk outside with the shirt on, let me know.
Chris Creekmur: [00:47:32] Shirt off shirts off cleaners dot com.
Stone Payton: [00:47:35] I like it. I like it. All right. And the ringleader here, Chris, what’s the best way to connect with you, man?
Chris Creekmur: [00:47:40] The best way. Just go on my website W WW Atlanta drone cleaning com you can see videos there’s a lot of call to actions my contact information the areas we service. I’m also on LinkedIn my personal profile Chris Creekmore and Atlanta drone cleaning. People can text or call me 678 800 4560.
Stone Payton: [00:48:01] Well gentlemen and Chris, it’s been a delight to have you all in the studio today. This has been fun. It’s been informing, It’s been inspiring. Really appreciate you guys coming to share your story. And I’m quite sincere. Don’t be a stranger. Come back and see me some time.
Brock Tilley: [00:48:16] Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Stone.
Stone Payton: [00:48:17] My pleasure. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today. And everyone here at the business Radio X family saying we’ll see you again on Cherokee Business Radio.
Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, growing your community in a service-based business is so important, but there are a couple of key mistakes that you’ve identified that we should share.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:15] Yeah. If your community isn’t growing as fast as you want, you’re probably doing one or two or both of these things wrong. The first thing is, you’re not attracting enough of the right type of community members, the people that really should be part of the community. And secondly, you’re not creating enough engagement with the community members you already have.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:39] So, think about the activities you can be doing every day to bring more of the right people in your community, and what activities can you be doing every day to create more value and engagement to your existing community. If you do that, you will find that your existing community will spread the word about the community because they want other people like themselves to be part of it. So, create a community where the members themselves can’t wait to tell other people about this and can’t wait to help them get involved. So, if you do that, you’ll see that your community will start growing a lot faster.
Khristie Staines, Co-Founder, Footprints on the Heart
Anne Say, Chief Visual Storyteller, photographer and author
Kenya Robbins, Licensed Funeral Director & Embalmer
Tara Key, Agent, Byrd Insurance Agency
Brad Nichols, Charlie’s Angels Movers
Laura Lahr, Owner at Dr. Fahrenheit Inc.
Walter Jordan, CEO, Impacting Our Youth, Inc.
Steven Williams & Miosha Quinn, Dispatch Masters of Georgia and Win With Quinn
Padma Jonnavithula is the maker and owner behind the Snuggly Blanket Company. From a full time Banker to starting her own small business has been a rewarding experience for her.
What started out as a hobby, turned into a successful side hustle. Padma’s aim is to provide a cozy and comfy experience to you and your loved ones with her handmade chunky blankets and to teach you the fine art of making these beautiful blankets so you can gift them to your loved ones.
Follow Snuggly Blanket Company on Facebook and Instagram.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix
Intro: [00:00:07] Coming to you live from the Business RadioX studio in Woodstock, Georgia. This is fearless formula with Sharon Cline.
Sharon Cline: [00:00:17] And welcome to Fearless Formula on Business Radio X, where we talk about the ups and downs in the business world and offer words of wisdom for business success. I’m your host, Sharon Cline. And today on the show, we have a former banker, full time banker, who turned her side hustle into her main hustle. And she’s the owner of the Snuggly Blanket Company. Welcome, Padma, to the show.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:00:40] Thank you, Sharon. Great to be here.
Sharon Cline: [00:00:42] Thank you. I really appreciate you spending time with me today.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:00:44] Thank you for having me.
Sharon Cline: [00:00:45] Sure. And I love your story because so many people have little side hustles and you never know what it’s going to amount to. But here you are, full time banker Wells Fargo in the corporate world. But then you have this creative side that you really like. Can you tell me about how you got started?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:01:00] Sure. So yeah, it’s actually in the midst of the pandemic. I was working with the bank full time and, you know, unfortunately, I had some work permit issues and, you know, I had to get separated from my full time job and I had a lot of time on hand. And, you know, this was in the middle of the pandemic. And I was like, you know, what do I do? I can’t step out anywhere. Is there any hobby I can cultivate or, you know, is there any classes that I can take? So there have been a couple of, you know, stuff that I wanted to do pottery, I did candle making and I did join a class to actually learn how to make these chunky blankets. And, you know, I probably was the only, you know, a customer that they had. And I have at least taken about five or six different classes with them because I wanted to try out to see what is it that I’m going to enjoy. And the moment I took the chunky blanket class and when I came back home, I was like, you know, really in love with that, you know, the magic that you could do without any prior or, you know, experience in crocheting or knitting. And at the end of 2 hours, you had this beautiful blanket in front of you. And I was like, Wow, this is awesome. You know, I would want to try this and, you know, do some more. So, yeah, I mean, it just started like that. And I remember that Thanksgiving I made chunky blankets as presents to my friends, family. Everybody got one. And, you know, and I knew that, you know, I’m on a different journey now and, you know, I’m really going to enjoy doing this.
Sharon Cline: [00:02:25] What I love, too, is it’s very meditative.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:02:28] It is very therapeutic. I was very, very calming. I mean, most of the time on, you know, at home, you would find me watching Netflix and quietly knitting away. And it’s it’s really calmed my nerves because I’m somebody who is very hyper, who is very, you know, anxious. But it’s really brought a lot of calm and a lot of I really find it very therapeutic.
Sharon Cline: [00:02:50] And you get at the end, you get to give these gifts to people that they love. You know what I mean? Who doesn’t love a snuggling? Playing like it just sounds amazing.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:02:57] I have one in each room of my house.
Sharon Cline: [00:03:00] Well, it’s cool too, because there’s no technology that’s needed. You don’t have to have a degree. You can just figure out like the basic stitching and you do it over and over. Right?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:03:08] Exactly. I mean, I think that’s the whole idea of it. And I tell them that anybody can knit. Knitting doesn’t have to be I mean, you know, just to take that fear out of people like, oh, you I’m not creative. I don’t know how to handle the hooks and the needles. And I’ve never done any sewing in my life. And I would say, then this is the perfect thing for you to do, because this doesn’t require any prior knowledge. You don’t have to be. I mean, I’ve never done any knitting in my life, and all you need is just your two hands, you know, just the finger knitting. You don’t have any tools that you need and know at the end of it, you create something so beautiful out of it that, you know, I think that’s one reason why people love to come to my workshop because, you know, I mean, it’s a make and take blanket. So you come here, you make it, and then you take it with you when you go back.
Sharon Cline: [00:03:53] There’s one of the questions I had for you is I saw on your website that you have workshops. Can you tell me about them?
Speaker3: [00:03:57] Sure.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:03:59] You know, it’s it’s very interesting how I got into doing workshops. I did mention that, you know, I was enjoying making these chunky blankets and I thought, okay, now that I’ve made so many, let me see if anybody would buy it. You know, let’s see if I can kind of, you know, turn it into a business. And I made a post on Facebook saying, okay, I can make chunky blankets. And I put a couple of photos and there’s one lady who approached me and she said, Your blankets are beautiful, but would you even mind teaching me because I think I would want to make my own as well, you know, unless I mean, if it’s very complicated, then that’s fine. But otherwise, it’s something that I can learn. I would love to come and learn. And that was like, you know, it just instantly sparked this idea that why not? I mean, you know, just the way I enjoy doing it. I’m sure there are so many ladies out there who would love it. So I said, Yeah, sure, I don’t have any location, but you are welcome to come to my house. So she was very first customer. She just didn’t knock. The door, came into my house and we both were sitting on my, you know, across my dining table and she made a beautiful blanket and she was like, you know, it’s again, it’s like a word of mouth spread. And then she brought her friends over. And, you know, now I do workshops at least. You know, 2 to 3 times a month. And most of my customers are from our favorite Cherokee County. The Woodstock and Canton ladies, they just seem to love this. The moment I advertise it, it gets sold out so fast.
Sharon Cline: [00:05:19] It’s funny because when you think about the old days, they used to have these sewing circles, you know, and the people who would do quilting together. And there is something. So bonding about spending that time together, Do you find that the case for you? You get to know these ladies?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:05:31] Definitely. I think you know what? If you ask me what I love the most about my business, do I make blankets and sell? And I probably make more money there. But what I really enjoy doing is the workshops because, you know, it gives me the opportunity to meet so many amazing ladies, form such lovely friendships. And now with me not working full time, you know, I miss that connect, you know, of talking to people. And I think this is an excellent way. I’ve made some amazing friends and, you know, also the like nice little knitting community. We still exchange pictures of what they are knitting. They keep coming back to me with questions. You know, we formed a beautiful community. And I think that’s that’s the beauty of this entire workshop thing.
Sharon Cline: [00:06:11] It’s so cool because it was just an inspiration for you, you know, something that you were trying to figure out what felt so good to you to do, you know, for yourself, candle making or whatever. So this is what kind of sparked your interest. And now, look, it’s kind of affected a lot of people’s lives. It’s really kind of a cool story.
Speaker3: [00:06:27] Yeah.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:06:27] And, you know, to be to be honest, I just started off last January, so it’s kind of a year since I really went into, you know, doing this commercially. So and I think I’ve come a long way in the last one year. And, you know, there are so many different things, plans that I have for the coming years.
Sharon Cline: [00:06:46] So. So you also do private events.
Speaker3: [00:06:48] I saw. Oh, yes, I do.
Sharon Cline: [00:06:50] What are your private events that you do?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:06:52] So I do corporate workshops, team building workshops. And so, you know, I think you probably must have known that a lot of companies these days, you know, want to do a cooking class as a team, you know, So anything to bring their entire team together outside the work environment for them to bond over an activity. And I think a blanket making is perfect for any season, not just the winter, because, you know, these are greatest presents to be given away. So I’ve done a lot of corporate workshops and I also do a lot of private events in the sense that, you know, you have your own friends group, you know, you have a girls night and you have about seven or eight friends that are staying over and you’re looking for an activity that you all can do at home. So I call my private workshops the the Chardonnay and Chanel. So it’s like a sip and knit kind of thing.
Speaker3: [00:07:39] So you have a glass of chardonnay and then you have the shiny lion and you know, before you know it, you, you end up making a blanket. So that’s fun.
Speaker3: [00:07:50] As long as you don’t have you don’t have too much chardonnay.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:07:54] You might end up missing a few.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:07:57] Nonsense lives here.
Sharon Cline: [00:07:58] And it’s all good.
Sharon Cline: [00:07:59] It’s all very mature stuff. Oh, that’s funny. You also have do it yourself kits, which are kind of cool, because if someone maybe can’t come to one, maybe they could be able to do it at home. So you tell me about that.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:08:09] Yes, I think, again, the idea for the DIY kits has come from one of my customers, you know, so I think that’s you know, it’s very important when you’re in a business to kind of listen to what your clients are saying because you know, most of your ideas, the idea for your next product could be coming from them.
Sharon Cline: [00:08:24] Because they just ask, Do you have this? And you’re like, wait, yes, I do now.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:08:29] So this lady asked me, okay, we want to do this. But you know, my mom, she cannot come to the workshop. So is there something that, you know, she can just sit at home and do? Do you have a video or something? And I said, Wow, that’s a great idea, because if you have asked for this, I’m sure that there’s some many more ladies out there who would want to do the same. So that’s, you know, kind of gave rise to the DIY kits. So when you order a DIY kit from me, it has everything that you need to make a blanket. So it has the yarn, it has, you know, the scissors and you know, all the tools that you would need are measuring tape. And you also get a link to a full video tutorial which tells you how to knit the blankets step by step. So everything that you want is in the kit. So all you need is just buy the kit that told me you need a computer and an internet connection and you can, you know, in 2 hours you could make a blanket.
Sharon Cline: [00:09:23] That’s really amazing, isn’t it?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:09:25] Yeah.
Sharon Cline: [00:09:25] And it’s a skill that you don’t even have to always get a new kit. You can go and find your own yarn or whatever. It. Exactly. It’s a skill that you’re learning.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:09:31] Exactly. Yep. Yep.
Sharon Cline: [00:09:33] So is it crocheting or is it knitting?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:09:36] It’s knitting.
Sharon Cline: [00:09:37] It’s knitting.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:09:38] It’s knitting.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:09:39] And it’s a knitting with no tools.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:09:43] Just your finger. Yes. But crocheting it’s the difficult part of crocheting is that it’s probably not for everybody because and also, number two, it is not something you could learn in one class.
Sharon Cline: [00:09:53] And I would agree on that. Yeah. You know, so you have complicated.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:09:57] Exactly. So you should first know how to hold the hooks. And, you know, it’s a series of classes before you can actually see the end product. Whereas with these chunky blanket. I would say it’s more like an instant gratification. You know, you just learn it then, and when you’re going out of the class, you’re going out with something that you have made, you know, So that makes it very special.
Sharon Cline: [00:10:16] And I’m just going to say, do you find that that people are super proud of themselves for having made something? You know, physically? It’s like when you go to the painting classes and they have like a little I don’t know, was it like a painting thing where you sip wine and then you go home with, like, your artwork? Yeah, it’s something that you can say that you made. So I’m imagining that, you know, people would be really proud of.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:10:37] I think that’s the most rewarding part of doing the workshops is when you when you see these happy faces of people who come into my workshop very nervous thinking, Oh, is this something that I can do? Maybe it’s not for me, you know, And when they enter the workshop and they’re going back, you know, with the blanket that they made and the happiness in their faces, I think that’s very rewarding for me.
Sharon Cline: [00:11:00] Would you say that’s the most rewarding part? Is that that’s awesome. Yes. Yes. Well, let’s talk a little bit about the fact that you started this business. So did you go through the standard way, like make an LLC or a DBA? Figured all of that out. And how did you do that? Did you do like I did, which is Google everything?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:11:17] Actually, I should give credit for all that to my husband. So he I mean, I, I somehow, you know, I can’t get my head around those things. So he’s the one who he said, if you want to do it, let’s just do it, you know, the right way. So we’ve got an LLC established and it’s called the Club Nirvana Resorts, because we also have a holiday resort kind of a business. And the Snuggly Blanket company is doing business.
Sharon Cline: [00:11:46] Yes. So it’s it’s amazing.
Sharon Cline: [00:11:48] Well, I mean, a lot of people have ideas about how they would like a company to to come to fruition. And so having someone say this is kind of my path, how I did it, it makes it less scary because when you look at it, it’s like, what? I’m going to make a whole company. How do you do that? You know? But it’s nice that there are resources and it’s also wonderful. We always talk about this on the show, having the right amount of people around you or the people that have knowledge to help you and support.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:12:10] Exactly. I think now more than anything now, you know, if you want to start something on your own, there is no shortage of resources.
Sharon Cline: [00:12:18] I would agree with that.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:12:18] And you only have to ask because there’s so many groups, you know, women’s entrepreneur groups out there who are more than willing to help you with any question that you might have and at no cost. I mean, these are ladies who just want to you know, it could be on a Facebook group, it could be your next door, it could be on any of these apps that you use regularly. So, you know, if you have the determination and you have the, you know, the dream to do something, now is the time. Because, you know, you have everything that you need at your fingertips.
Sharon Cline: [00:12:50] It’s so smart. Do you also go to networking meetings like we have some of our networking here?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:12:54] I actually I’ve been kind of, you know, not going avoiding, I would say, because I’m not a very extrovert kind of person. I like to keep.
Sharon Cline: [00:13:04] To myself, Oh, you’re doing so.
Sharon Cline: [00:13:05] Great right.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:13:06] Now. But you know what? Having said that, tomorrow I’m going for my very first networking.
Sharon Cline: [00:13:11] Are you really? I’m clapping for you off camera or.
Sharon Cline: [00:13:14] Off the mike? Yeah, I think that’s amazing because.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:13:17] Because I’m like, you know, I should get out of my comfort zone and, you know, go and meet other people and, you know, so yes. So tomorrow I’m doing this.
Sharon Cline: [00:13:24] Amazing. I really feel like you you maybe underestimate, like, how engaging you are. And, you know, people like to hear other people’s stories, you know, And so be fascinating for you to tell yours that way. And I think it’s really cool, especially here in Woodstock. We have a lot of support of business owners, and it’s just so nice how you feel, like someone’s really interested in your little journey and what you can provide for them and you feel the same for them. And it’s just like it becomes a little family.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:13:49] Exactly. I think so. That’s why I’m just taking my first step. And that’s one of the, you know, goals I have for this year that I should go out, you know, join these networking groups. I’ve also recently signed up for the Atlanta Entrepreneur Women, so I’m kind of a part of that group as well. So I’m slowly kind of, you know, spreading my wings and kind of getting into these networking groups.
Sharon Cline: [00:14:13] Would you ever have thought, like a year and a half ago that you would be doing all of these things? Is that crazy?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:14:19] You know, as they say, when life throws lemons at you, you make a lemonade.
Sharon Cline: [00:14:25] For sure. You make blankets.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:14:26] Yeah. You make blankets. Yes.
Sharon Cline: [00:14:29] What are some surprises that you’ve encountered as you’ve kind of grown your business? Are there some big surprises, things you didn’t expect?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:14:37] Oh, I think one of the biggest surprise is I never knew that there were so many women out there who would want to learn a skill like this as a hobby. You know, when I started, I thought, okay, people would want to buy a blanket, but, you know, I never knew that there was so much interest in people. You know, it’s easy for anybody to just buy a retail product. But the interest that people have in gifting somebody their own handmade one, I think that’s. It might not be the perfect blanket, but it’s something that they have made. So I think, you know, that interest kind of just took me by surprise. You know, when I first announced my workshop, I thought, Oh, I don’t think anybody is going to even come and attend it. And, you know, within a week it kind of got filled up and I was like, Wow, okay. I thought I was the only one who wanted to try something. But, you know, there’s so many women out there and, you know, I think it’s that’s the big surprise element, I would say.
Sharon Cline: [00:15:32] Do you ever have men want to come or has it been predominantly women?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:15:35] It’s been predominantly women. Having said that, I did have, I think probably in the last one year, at least about ten men, which is not about. Yeah. And, you know, once I had a couple who came on a date.
Sharon Cline: [00:15:48] Oh, you’re kidding. Sweet as that. It was.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:15:52] Extremely sweet. I mean, I you know, you wouldn’t believe the man. Actually, he finished knitting the blanket much Before his girlfriend did. He was, you know, good with his hands. Exactly.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:16:03] And he was like a man on a mission, you know? He was like, okay. The moment I explained to him how to do it, he got the hang of it and he was quietly sitting there and this lady was trying to make a conversation because obviously they were on a date. But he was like, No, let me finish this. I’m really enjoying doing this.
Speaker3: [00:16:21] So, yeah, I mean.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:16:23] It was fun and I have a lot of, you know, I had a mom and still her teenage son who.
Speaker3: [00:16:27] Came, Oh, wow.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:16:29] You know, which is very surprising and very beautiful because honestly, I have a 20 year old and I can’t get him to, you know, come and try his hand at knitting.
Sharon Cline: [00:16:38] So it’s like, No, no, thanks, Mom.
Speaker3: [00:16:41] That’s cute.
Sharon Cline: [00:16:44] Well, have you had any along this journey? Have you had any. This is always a tough question that I asked. But like, have there been any sort of mistakes that you’re sort of like, dang, I wish I knew before I got started this, you know, something that you wish you could tell yourself before you got started?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:16:59] I think it’s a bit too soon for me. It’s it’s just been a year, so I’ve not had any. Major mistakes other than probably just one, which was, you know, I mean, I as a small business owner, I mean, you probably know that we don’t have a huge budget for marketing and advertising. Yes. Yeah. So I rely rely heavily on Facebook. So to, you know, Facebook groups. And one a lesson that I learned the hard way is that you cannot use Facebook groups too much.
Speaker3: [00:17:28] You know. Yeah.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:17:30] I mean that’s the lesson that I’ve heard the hard way. And you know, my my account got disabled ones and, you know, that was like a nightmare experience.
Sharon Cline: [00:17:40] Well, if you’re just joining us, we’re speaking to Padma of the Snuggly Blanket Company. We just talked a little bit before the show started about what it’s like for you on social media, because I follow you on Instagram and I see posts like a couple of times a day sometimes, and I think this is amazing. It’s like, this is such effort for you to be able to advertise and you’re doing this yourself. So what is that like?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:18:04] Yeah.
Speaker3: [00:18:05] I think, you know.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:18:08] That’s the one part of owning your own business which, which I personally am not a big fan of, which is, you know, running the social media. I wish a day comes very soon when I can afford somebody to do it for me.
Sharon Cline: [00:18:21] I know the right person to point you to for sure. But yeah, because it’s 2407, right?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:18:26] You know, you’re constantly thinking of what content to put out there and you know, how many reels, what is trending, what is the trending audio? You know, it’s not just the reels. You got to post those, you know, the stories and the posts. I mean, there’s so many different things. And I think the landscape of social media is changing so rapidly and it’s just not Instagram. You should have presence on TikTok and Twitter and everything. You know, it’s it’s a it’s a full time job for somebody. I mean, right now I think I’ll probably, you know, doing it, doing a good job, I would say. But yeah, I mean, I don’t see managing my own social media for a long.
Speaker3: [00:19:04] Time.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:19:06] Because I think it takes up too much time. And, you know, I would rather use that to grow my business.
Sharon Cline: [00:19:12] I know even I need to hire someone so they can do it for me and you because I don’t like doing it either. And I don’t, which is not good for me. I need to work on that for sure.
Speaker3: [00:19:21] I mean, it’s.
Sharon Cline: [00:19:22] It’s a challenge, I think. Like you were saying, you took a picture before the show started. You’re like, I got to get content. But that means that your brain is constantly looking at content.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:19:30] Exactly. I mean, you know. Yeah, that’s a top thought on my head all the time. Like before I even got into the car, I just made a small video clip saying that, okay, I’m heading out to, you know, to meet Sharon. So, you know, this thought that, you know, you have to keep churning the content out every time. So that’s on top of your mind. So you’re kind of looking for where can you find content?
Sharon Cline: [00:19:51] Yeah, what picture can I. Exactly. Nice or video what looks nice, you know? Oh, my goodness, I’m lazy, I think. But if you want to compete, I imagine the more you put into it, the more.
Speaker3: [00:20:02] Exactly.
Sharon Cline: [00:20:03] And I think that’s how I found you actually is because I saw something on Facebook and I was like, Oh, this this looks like a really interesting business, you know, And that it was fairly new. And I was like, I got to ask her about it.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:20:15] I think the Cherokee Connect a Facebook group, I think that’s that’s being an excellent, you know, I would say a blessing in disguise because that’s a fabulous group. And I think the person who manages the.
Sharon Cline: [00:20:26] Yes. Josh Josh.
Speaker3: [00:20:27] Bagby.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:20:28] Yeah, he’s great. And, you know, I mean, I think I’ve had a lot of response for my workshops from the advertising that I do on the Facebook groups.
Sharon Cline: [00:20:38] Have you found that you have competition? Who is your competition? Do you even look at other people who do blanket making or anything like that?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:20:44] There are a lot of people who do it or, you know, in and around Atlanta, but I’m not sure if there’s anybody doing that in the Cherokee County.
Speaker3: [00:20:53] Look at you.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:20:54] So I’m like, you know, this is my county.
Speaker3: [00:20:57] You know, congratulations. You are the don’t ask.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:21:03] Don’t don’t you ever think of.
Speaker3: [00:21:04] Coming to Cherokee? I don’t want any competition. Yeah, of course not.
Sharon Cline: [00:21:09] But it’s funny because seriously, I love the notion that you’re really helping so many people kind of in this county in particular, really enjoy something like this. So I don’t know. I mean, I’m inspired by it.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:21:21] I think it’s the one great good thing is, you know, a lot of people say, I’m just alone. Can I come by myself and sign up? I’m saying I tell them, please do, because, you know, they come alone. But when they go out of my workshop, they have made a friend, you know? So it’s beautiful. It’s a place where you’re like minded. People can come so you don’t always have to sign up a workshop with a friend, with your mom, with your daughter. No. I mean, if you’re just be yourself and you have a Saturday morning free, you just come by and meet new people, you know, learn a new skill. And I keep telling them, you know, this will very soon become your favorite hobby. And it’s happened for so many people. They keep coming back with pictures of what they’ve made. And, you know, as a teacher, it makes me very proud that they just didn’t make one black. And forget all about it. But they still keep in touch with me. And a lot of people have made so many other things which I haven’t. I just taught them to make one blanket, but they’ve taken that craft ahead and made a lot of fabulous things.
Sharon Cline: [00:22:18] So if you look back over the year, you know, we talk about on fearless Formula, the things that people kind of tend to not do because they do have maybe they’re trepidatious about something or, you know, don’t know that they have enough skill to make their own company. Are there some ups and downs that you’ve experienced or is it still fairly new?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:22:36] I think it’s really fairly new still, I would say. But I think there are a couple of challenges, as any new business owner, I think is, you know, managing your website and, you know, the technology, the search engine optimization. So those are the things that I still struggle with. And, you know, a lot of this I kind of do a lot of self-learning and I try to do it myself. I mean, I’ve built my entire website from scratch by myself.
Speaker3: [00:23:01] It’s beautiful.
Sharon Cline: [00:23:02] I really love how you you made it look lovely. I was actually admiring it. Yeah, That’s.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:23:07] Impressive. Yeah. I think, you know, the website optimization and stuff like that. I think that’s a bit of a challenge that I still have, and I think that’s probably with a lot of people out there wanting to start their own thing.
Sharon Cline: [00:23:20] Yeah, but you know, there are, like you said, there are resources in order to help you figure it out. So you don’t really need to have a big degree in.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:23:28] Know, you.
Sharon Cline: [00:23:28] Know, marketing and advertising or even hire someone.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:23:31] I think all you need is that a time and the willingness to learn and you know you could it’s not something and you know probably about five six years ago it might have been a different thing. But now, you know, you have resources everywhere. You have the time, you have the determination, you have the inclination to do it yourself. You can self learn and do it. It’s not rocket science, definitely.
Sharon Cline: [00:23:51] I love that because I do believe there are a lot of people that have dreams out there that are just a little intimidated by the notion, like just don’t even know where to start.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:23:59] Oh, no. I mean, if I can do it, anybody can do it.
Speaker3: [00:24:02] You’re not special. No, because you.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:24:04] Know, somebody like me, I was always into a corporate job. And, you know, I never thought myself as a creative person. And starting something on my own was like the farthest thing from my mind. So, you know, it’s not impossible if if you’re on the fence thinking about, should I do it or should I not do it, I would say just jump in and just dive in and do it. You can look and learn, figure it out as you go along.
Sharon Cline: [00:24:26] Well, what would you like to see your company? Well, first of all, you do blankets, but do you do any other kind of patterns or is it just blankets now?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:24:32] Oh, there are a couple of things I do like. Yeah, I’m predominantly I make and sell blankets. I teach people how to make and I do the scarves, not just blankets. I do scarves as well. And I I’m going to start making the pet beds, you know, cute cat beds and dog beds as well.
Speaker3: [00:24:50] Really? Yes.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:24:51] So I’m going to be launching them this year. And I’ve got a new product that I’m kind of launching next month. So these are hand crocheted items. So, you know, one course that’s always been dear to me is the women empowerment. So I’m, you know, kind of working with a few ladies back home in India. So we teach these women come from a very rural, you know, backward community in India. And, you know, we teach these women how to do knitting and crocheting, sew, and they make these beautiful items. And, you know, I’m bringing that here to kind of give them a bigger platform. And this kind of helps these women send their kids to school, you know, and it puts their food on the table. I mean, and, you know, to be I’m extremely surprised at the kind of skill that these women have, you know, and the products that they are kind of, you know, with very little training that I provide. You know, they make these beautiful things. And, you know, it’s it’s it helps them a lot. You know, it’s you know, it’s helping them send their kids to school. They have the house over their head. So I think it’s it’s a great thing. And I’m kind of, you know, starting marketing and selling those products from next month. So that’s something new that I’m you know, it’s a very dear project to me because, you know, not not, not all women are fortunate, and especially when you come from very rural parts of India, I think it’s it’s a great opportunity to bring their work, give it a bigger platform. You know.
Sharon Cline: [00:26:24] That’s very sweet, you know, And it must be near and dear. You’re almost you’re almost paying it forward in some way.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:26:30] Exactly. Exactly.
Sharon Cline: [00:26:31] Oh, not everybody does that. I’m impressed that you do that.
Speaker3: [00:26:34] That’s very cool. Yeah, I said forward. Yeah, forward.
Sharon Cline: [00:26:38] Yeah, yeah. But, you know, it’s funny. I think it’s important to highlight the fact that not everybody like you said, not every woman is born in a fortunate situation. And I think I can tend to have the blinders on and assume everyone lives like I do. But how important it is to share a skill that you have that can make someone else’s life better.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:26:56] Yeah, and I think it’s giving back to the country where I come from because, you know, I know not not all women there are, especially from a very backward community. This means a lot to them.
Speaker3: [00:27:07] Wow.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:27:07] So, you know, and these women are so sweet. They’re so willing to learn. You know, they’re very willing to learn what’s coming and, you know, and creating such beautiful pieces. And I’ve been kind of, you know, dropping some hints on my story and on my reels about the upcoming products. And people have been loving it so far. So I just can’t wait to launch this.
Sharon Cline: [00:27:30] Well, where do you see if you were going to imagine yourself five years from now? Where would you like your company to be? Do you have a kind of idea?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:27:38] You know what, To be very honest, Sharon, I’m not somebody who thinks that very long term. I just want to take it each day as it comes and see what’s my next move going to be. What else can I offer? I think five years probably is a long time. But yes, I mean, I definitely want to grow the business. And I don’t know if I will ever go back to a 9 to 5 job again. I still have this thing at the back of my mind. Oh, maybe I should attend some interviews and, you know, maybe I should take up a full time job. But then, you know, I’m enjoying doing this so much that I probably will never go back to full time working. So, yes, I mean, I definitely want to grow my business and, you know, and, you know, increase my offerings and see what else I can bring to my customers.
Sharon Cline: [00:28:27] That’s great. I am the same. I don’t really think that far.
Speaker3: [00:28:29] Yeah.
Sharon Cline: [00:28:30] I don’t know if that’s a good thing for me or bad, but I tend to be in this moment. It’s fine right now.
Speaker3: [00:28:35] Exactly.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:28:36] I take one day at a.
Sharon Cline: [00:28:37] Time for sure. Gosh, I had another question in my mind and I just lost. Oh, I got it. Where do you get all of your supplies for your yarn and things?
Speaker3: [00:28:48] Yes. Do you.
Sharon Cline: [00:28:49] Wholesale.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:28:49] Wholesale them? Yes. I also sell the yarn. So, you know, the people who attend my workshop, once they finish and they want to go back and make some more so they can buy yarn from my website. I initially I used to buy locally from the craft stores around here and I noticed that, you know, they don’t have all the colors that I need and the quality is also not up to the mark. Like after all these blankets are washable. But you know, the quality I notice sometimes is it kind of just snaps after a wash. So now I’m having my own brand of yarn. So if you want, I have about 21 colors that I sell. So this is an extremely, you know, soft and 100% polyester nylon. So and available in over 21 colors. So yeah, I mean, if you want to try your hand, please watch some yarn and you’ll fall in love with the touch and feel of the yarn because you know, it’s, it’s extremely soft.
Sharon Cline: [00:29:47] I saw that you did a blanket. I think it had Georgia colors. Is that right? Oh, yes.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:29:51] Yeah, those are my the college theme blankets are very, very popular. You know, especially was it two weeks ago when Georgia won.
Speaker3: [00:30:00] Yeah. You go to the blanket.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:30:03] Exactly. And my son goes to Georgia as well, so.
Speaker3: [00:30:06] Oh, wow. Yeah, he’s.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:30:07] A sophomore there. So. Yeah, I mean, I made a lot of blankets Georgia Tech. And, you know, now I think if you go to my site, I probably have more than 15 or 20 college blankets.
Sharon Cline: [00:30:18] It’s really smart. People are so passionate about that here in this. Oh, yes. Well, the Southeast, I guess. Yeah, Well, all over, I imagine. But in particular here, especially right now.
Speaker3: [00:30:26] Exactly. Yeah. Well, if people.
Sharon Cline: [00:30:28] Wanted to get in touch with you, what would be the best way that they could find you?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:30:32] Oh, you could find me on Instagram. You know, my Instagram handle is snuggly blanket co. That’s snug l y, b l a and k e or snugly blanket co. And I go by the same name on Facebook as well and TikTok as well. It’s the same. So you know, snuggly blanket CO those are the best ways. Or you could email me my email address is also on my website. It’s info, it’s snuggly blanket COCOM and I’m usually very prompt with my responses.
Sharon Cline: [00:31:05] So that’s great because you’re doing it all.
Speaker3: [00:31:07] Yes, I know.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:31:09] What are we? I’m never I mean, from my mobile.
Sharon Cline: [00:31:11] It must be difficult to really balance that out though. If you’re doing all of this on your own. Do you have any trouble kind of balancing or putting boundaries around your work time and family time?
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:31:21] I struggle with that.
Sharon Cline: [00:31:23] You know, people do, yes.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:31:24] Because, you know, as your own small business owner, especially since you’re just starting off, you know, you cannot restrict yourself to a certain timing. And especially I’m somebody I’ve been a workaholic all my life. You know, you get me when I get into something, I get into it, I take a full dive into it and I do it go all out for me. It’s either all out or, you know, I don’t get into.
Speaker3: [00:31:47] It at all. Go big or go home. They say, Yeah, yeah.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:31:50] But luckily I don’t have any small, you know, toddlers or babies at home. I have a 20 year old and I have a 11 year old going to be 12. So, yeah, I mean, I do have the entire time during the day and in the evening when he comes back, I spend a couple of hours with him. And once I put him to sleep and again, you know, I get back into.
Speaker3: [00:32:09] My.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:32:09] Last reel for the day.
Speaker3: [00:32:12] And then Netflix and Blanket making. Oh, yes.
Sharon Cline: [00:32:16] Well, Padma, I’m so glad you came by the studio and I really appreciate your sharing your story. And I’m hoping people out there inspired by the fact that the pandemic came and it could have been something really devastating, but you turned it into something really beautiful. And it extends not just to Cherokee County, but even over into India.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:32:31] Yes.
Sharon Cline: [00:32:32] Very cool. You’re welcome.
Padma Jonnavithula: [00:32:33] Thank you, Shannon, I think. Thanks a lot for having me. And I think it’s been a great experience speaking to you and sharing my experiences with the Cherokee County.
Speaker3: [00:32:41] Yay.
Sharon Cline: [00:32:42] Well, all of you out there, thank you for listening to Fearless Formula. I’m Business RadioX and this is Sharon Cline reminding you that with knowledge and understanding, we can all have our own fearless formula. Have a great day.
Good Faith Consulting, LLC began in 2015 when an acquaintance of the owner, Brianna Johnson, passed away unexpectedly.
She saw a great need to begin educating both herself and others when it came to their insurance and from that point on, she began working with small businesses and helping families find the right coverage for their specific needs.
She is an award-winning agent who was awarded as the National Agent of The Year via one of her carriers.
Connect with Brianna on LinkedIn.
Sean Berney grew up surfing and skateboarding on the east coast of Florida. In his early 20’s he decided to jump head first into business management.
After spending 15 years of his life successfully managing brick and mortar retail stores in the action sports industry, Sean decided to take on the challenge of starting his own business. 2020 launched opportunities for him to do just that. Along with a partner, Sean started an HVAC business and has now started a video production business, Fable Creature.
After moving to Georgia, Sean met and married his best friend Kellie, and exactly a year later (on their one year anniversary), their two nieces came to live with them. Sean has spent most of his life chasing after adventure, and now adventure has started chasing him.
Connect with Sean on LinkedIn.
Tim Abbott is the National Director, New Member Welcome Experience at Kaiser Permanente. He’s also a Board Member of Good Neighbor Homeless Shelter. Good Neighbor’s mission is to provide men, women, and families with temporary shelter and physical, emotional, and spiritual support.
Tim is married to his wife Lisa, and they have 3 children.
Connect with Tim on LinkedIn.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix
Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the business radio studios in Atlanta. It’s time for Charitable Georgia, brought to you by Bee’s Charitable Pursuits and Resources. We put the fun in fundraising. For more information, go to Bee’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. That’s Bees charitable pursuits dot com. Now here’s your host, Brian Pruitt.
Brian Pruett: [00:00:45] Good, fabulous. Friday morning, everybody in the listening world, it’s another fabulous Friday. And we got three more fabulous folks this morning. Stone You know, we’ve been doing this show to put positivity out there and today’s show is all about love. And you’ll hear it love and God’s story in these three stories, and they’re all three different. And it’s just amazing what you get to hear and hopefully what you get inspired by. The first guest this morning is Brianna Johnson with a good faith health insurance. So, Brianna, thank you for being here.
Brianna Johnson: [00:01:11] Thanks for having me.
Brian Pruett: [00:01:12] So, first of all, I do want to talk a little bit about your company and the good faith health insurance you get. You have a passion on helping people and trying to get the bridge with health insurance and people that really can’t find the right stuff. So but first of all, share your story and how you started this company and why you do what you do.
Brianna Johnson: [00:01:29] Okay. Well, I had a I was actually in finance before I did this, and I had a young lady come to see me one day and she was 27 years old. She sat across from me and said, I’m going to die before I’m 30 and I need a life insurance policy. And I just looked at her and I said, Well, why do you think you’re going to die? You know? And it turns out her medication was about $2,400. She had a medical condition that was very, very treatable. And I think I called about 5 to 10 different health insurance agents to help her. And nobody would help her because they all focused either on group or they were captive with a company that couldn’t sell them, sell or anything. So I ended up finding that medication for $45. She is now 33 years old. She’s had her third child. Her disease went into remission two years ago and she lives here in Kennesaw. So she’s doing great. But that kind of led me into I need to look into this industry because there’s just so few health insurance agents that actually will help families with preexisting health problems. You know, I look at share plans, I look at the marketplace, I look at individual indemnity insurance. I mean, I look at everything. So it makes me very unique.
Brian Pruett: [00:02:40] Do you also help small businesses as well?
Brianna Johnson: [00:02:43] Oh, absolutely. Up to and past 20 employees. It just depends on what their needs are.
Brian Pruett: [00:02:49] I think that’s awesome because you’re right, there’s a lot of people out there who have preconditioned things going on and they really can’t get the help. So it’s great to have somebody who is looking out for for others and doing that. So you if I remember right when we when we met and talked, you come from a large family, right?
Brianna Johnson: [00:03:04] Yeah. I’m one of 11 children.
Brian Pruett: [00:03:06] Yeah. So I’m sure Christmas was a lot of fun around here.
Brianna Johnson: [00:03:10] Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, and same mom and dad as well. I always have to add that part in. We’re not Irish or we are Irish, but we’re not Catholic. So it’s answering those questions. But Christmas was always a blast. Is always a blast.
Brian Pruett: [00:03:22] Well, one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is you and your husband did something pretty incredible last year. Yeah, officially, Yeah. You’ve been working on it for a while, but it came came finally to fruition last year. You guys went and adopted an infant? Yes. So share that story.
Brianna Johnson: [00:03:41] So my husband and I and I’m very open about this. We struggled with unexplained infertility for about eight years. And when I say unexplained, it means that we did all the medical testing and they could find absolutely nothing wrong with either one of us. We are, I think, in one of the 5 to 10% of couples who struggle with infertility where they don’t have an explanation. So the doctors just kept saying over and over, just keep trying. Just keep trying. And it was just it got to that point where we both looked at each other and I said, Honey, you’re about to be 38. Do we want to keep trying this way or do we want to actually make some effort and, you know, ensure that we get a child, that we have a child? And so our beautiful little boy was born in April. And the crazy thing is that when you start this process, you are told you’re probably going to have a baby with problems. He’s going to have a mother who’s got a drug problems. You’ve got children who are out there with ADHD and all that. And I go, Well, I have ADHD. So, you know, I sit here and I go, Well, that doesn’t guarantee anything. You know, a biological child doesn’t mean it’s going to be any healthier than a child you adopt. So anyway, we went through the process. It took about six months to get through, you know, the home study and tests and everything else to make sure that you are not criminals, that you’re going through.
Brianna Johnson: [00:05:00] The process is tedious. And we actually went live with our profile in December because the birth moms can actually choose you, which is pretty cool on the private adoption side of it. So if a mother gets pregnant with an unwanted child and they say, I don’t want this baby, they can actually choose the family this child goes to, which a lot of people don’t seem to understand. So we actually got matched two weeks after our profile went live, which is insane. That does not happen very often. And our birth mom, I’m actually still in contact with her. I actually reach out to her about every two weeks, send her emails and updates and. You know, let her know how he’s doing, because obviously this was an act of love on her part. But she had me there for the delivery. So I got the phone call and in the space of 5 minutes, I had to sit down because I thought she was calling my our lawyer was calling me to tell me, Oh, you need something for the website or we need something for this, that and the other. It’s a lot like online dating. You have to create a profile and the birth moms read through your profile and they can pick the criteria.
Brianna Johnson: [00:06:14] They can pick what state you live in. I mean, they literally have all of that information right in front of them. And she picked us, which we’re super humbled by. It was very sweet, the whole process. And, you know, for her, it was like this was not a child that she didn’t want. She just couldn’t keep. She didn’t have a drug problem or anything like that. But she just financially couldn’t do it. This was her fifth child. So in her situation, it’s pretty common for for women to get pregnant, single moms having to struggle through this process. But she has just been a wonderful example to me of just love, because when she gave birth, she was crying. I was crying. We were just congratulating each other, You know, when they put my son on her chest. And it’s, you know, at that time it’s her child, too. She’s just looking at me. She’s like, congratulations, you’re a mom. And she’s it was just incredible. But the entire time, I really did try to make her feel like it’s okay if you change your mind. And that is a hard thing for an adoptive parent to do, especially when you’ve waited this long. So, yeah, so everything has gone really well. And the funny thing is, you know, I mentioned this earlier. Our son’s been sleeping through the night since he was six weeks old.
Brian Pruett: [00:07:38] Wow.
Brianna Johnson: [00:07:38] He is the most sweet, angelic child. And I know I’m totally biased, but he is a really good kid. And it’s just funny because they they prepare you for the worst when you’re adopting, which is good and bad. But in our case, I was like, Man, we’ve been spoiled rotten with this child, Like, he’s so good. And his birth mom and I talk on a regular basis. We’re actually going to go see her this summer. We’re going to spend a week and just visit with her, let her see Corbin, our son, and just let her get to know him a little bit, because I do think that’s very, very healthy for the child when it’s a good situation for them to know the biological family to some extent, to know where they came from.
Brian Pruett: [00:08:23] That’s pretty cool because, I mean, you see, obviously Hollywood can do what they want to, but you see a lot of times it’s further down the road when they start asking questions about who their biological parents are and they want to start searching. So you guys are getting ahead of that curve, which I think is great.
Brianna Johnson: [00:08:36] Yeah. And it’s crazy to me that because, well, at least with private adoption, people think that there’s all these babies that are available. There’s not there’s about 30 families for every available child. So it’s surprising that number because people think, oh, yeah, there’s all these kids. No, there’s not. There’s really not. Not on the private adoption side.
Brian Pruett: [00:08:58] What’s the difference from the private and public side?
Brianna Johnson: [00:09:01] So there’s kind of three ways to adopt. You can do a domestic adoption, also considered a private adoption. You can do an international adoption, and you can also do a foster care adoption. So the private adoption side, there’s never like a 100% guarantee, but you’re definitely in a better spot as far as being more sure you’re going to get a child versus foster care, which is considered not as ideal because it’s designed for reunification. It’s not designed to place children with adopting families. The design is literally to try to get the child and the children that are in foster care back with their biological families, which is how it should be. So it’s kind of funny because people think, oh, you know, there’s all these kids like, no, there’s really not. There’s not because we have a very high rate of abortion. I don’t mean to get political, but that’s the truth. There’s just not I mean, if you look at the data, there’s 30 couples for every available child on the private adoption side. Wow.
Brian Pruett: [00:10:03] Can you give any advice for anybody out there who’s thinking about wanting to go through a process like this? What’s the best thing you can tell them?
Brianna Johnson: [00:10:09] Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid of it. It’s it’s something that, you know, if you are talking to people and get advice from people who’ve done it, don’t you know, just Google and go with the first thing that pops up. Talk to people who have gone through this process, who can advise you, but also who can encourage you, because it does require quite a bit of encouragement because it is scary. You know, you don’t you don’t know what you’re stepping into because you’ve never done this before. It’s like riding a bike. It’s kind of nerve wracking the first time you do it. So yeah, that’s my advice. This is just find someone that that can mentor you through it. And, you know, for us, when we were matched with our kid, it was literally like, okay, he’s due in three months and it’s a boy. And it was literally, Oh, we’ve got three months to get ready for our for our son. And we had so much support from our church, from our community. And what’s interesting is that there were things I didn’t even think about, like a bottle warmer. You don’t think about needing that when you go to the hospital to to have a baby, right? You just don’t think about it. We would have been totally lost without a bottle warmer because they don’t have those at the hospital. They don’t have a microwave in the room where you’re staying. So and that’s not a complaint. It’s just things like that. It’s just things like that. We we talk to a lot of people who went through it, and I literally had a friend that was Marco Polo. We made. This is the list of things you’re going to need, you know, And it’s it’s definitely a wonderful thing and it makes you feel very warm and very accepted.
Brian Pruett: [00:11:43] So are there groups out there to look for those mentors?
Brianna Johnson: [00:11:46] Absolutely. There’s actually a lot of groups through depending on what agency you go through, they have groups. I started a Moms group specifically on Facebook, just for families interested in adopting, for families who are like, Hey, we want to adopt, but we don’t know if we can afford to adopt, you know, and sharing data. As far as just information, here’s some grants you can apply for. Here’s some fundraising we can actually help you with. And that’s something that is is so it’s so out there. Everybody thinks, oh, it’s so hard. You’re on your own and you do feel like an island at first, but then you start to look around. You go, Wow, there’s like all these families that have done this, gone through this process, and I want to learn from the master, you know, And it’s kind of like business. You want to learn from someone that knows and has been through it.
Brian Pruett: [00:12:37] If somebody wanted to get a hold of you, first of all, for their health insurance needs or if somebody wants to get ahold of you and talk about the adoption process because they want to start doing it, are there ways people can do that? And if so, how can they?
Brianna Johnson: [00:12:47] Absolutely. So for either of those people can just call my cell phone, which is 7702899231. My website is good faith health insurance dot com. If people want to look me up and just read about what we do. But I’m an open book when it comes to either of those things so anyone can reach out if they just hey, I’m thinking about this and I’m not sure what the steps are and I need a little guidance or a little help either one.
Brian Pruett: [00:13:13] Can you share your Facebook group too? Is there if somebody’s looking for that?
Brianna Johnson: [00:13:16] Yes. So I actually that’s a private group. So I’m going to actually I would share the link with someone who is interested. So.
Brian Pruett: [00:13:22] Well, Brianna, thank you for, again, being here and sharing your story. Do you mind sticking around and listen to these other two stories?
Brianna Johnson: [00:13:27] Because I love it. I’m actually really excited to hear your stories.
Brian Pruett: [00:13:31] Awesome. Well, we’re going to move over now to Sean Berney. So, Sean, thanks for being here this morning.
Sean Berney: [00:13:35] Yeah, thanks, Brian. Appreciate you having me, man.
Brian Pruett: [00:13:37] So you and I met a few months ago, and at the time you were working for Titan Pro Mechanical, which is an HVAC company. But I’ve learned that you you are a surfer, you like mountain biking, you’re a youth leader, and you do all kinds of stuff. And then just this month, you stepped out on your own and started a new videography company. So give us a little bit of your background.
Sean Berney: [00:13:57] Yeah. So as you said, I grew up in Cocoa, Florida, surfing, skateboarding, just really anything that I could get my hands on. Honestly, I have too many hobbies. My my wife complains all the time, like you have all these basics. It’s just ridiculous. Right? And so I’ve been trying to, you know, as I get older, I’ve been trying to narrow those things in. Also, I’ve definitely gained a lot more wisdom in my older age with my my sense of mortality, you know, knowing that, like, I probably shouldn’t hit that jump or I probably shouldn’t surf that size wave, things like that. But yeah, so as you said before I did, I was part owner in an HVAC business. I’ve spent about 16 years in the business management space, so I started working for action sports companies, skateboard companies, snowboard companies. And I traveled really all over the US, living in different places, doing that and just managing business, opening brick and mortar stores for those different brands. And then, you know, eventually I really just wanted to to start my own right. So I worked for a company that had that was really about the 50% mark of their their full growth. And then I wanted to see what it was like to go a little bit earlier on.
Sean Berney: [00:15:05] And so I went to a business that was about 25% into their infancy and their full of growth and and that was fantastic. And then I was like, I want to see what it’s like from day one, right? I want to know what it’s like. And so I went in and found a partner that was just an HVAC savant. He was amazing. I went and did a couple of jobs with him just to see what he was all about. And we had kind of met during the pandemic. We were working out in my garage together and I was like, You need to get your contractor’s license and let’s let’s do this right. So we did. And it was it was fantastic. But honestly, my my love for film and film production and storytelling. Was just something that I had done since, you know, really early on, since I was a teenager. And my friends and I were always filming each other’s skateboarding and doing different things. And I just absolutely loved it. And it was a passion. And I started doing some of that for one of the businesses that I was in. And we were using a lot of those videos internally and, you know, they loved it.
Sean Berney: [00:16:02] And so they were commissioning me to do more things. But long story short, you know, my business partner and I were having having a conversation one day and he was like, Man, he’s like, Your videos are really good. Like, they’re really good. He goes, And I kind of feel like this is something you should you should do. And I was like, okay, you know, you think so? And so, you know? So I went out on a limb this year and decided to start my my own film production business, stable creature film production. We do weddings, events and then also a lot of branding. And I think my, you know, 16 plus years of experience in the business world, corporate business world gives me a really unique perspective with with customers and clients with branding, because, you know, I, I know what’s going to turn those transactions, right? I know those things. What kind of clientele are you trying to target? So it gives me a unique edge, I think, to a lot of filmmakers where I have that creative side. But I also I understand the marketing and sell side of it as well. So so that’s really exciting as well. But yeah.
Brian Pruett: [00:17:05] So, so I have to ask, where did the name Fabled Creature come from?
Sean Berney: [00:17:08] Yeah, a good question. Good question. So, you know, I, I love like sci fi and fantasy and I’m a huge like Lord of the Rings nerd and all those types of things. I can’t I can’t help myself, Right? I can’t help myself. So that’s kind of part of it. But, you know, the idea of a fable is a story, right? And, you know, the idea of this fable creature when I was going into it, it’s like there’s this story that everybody has in their mind that that’s maybe unattainable, right? Like, they don’t know how to capture it. They don’t know how to to to put it into this mode that that tells everybody who they are and what they do. You know, especially with like with brides. Right. You know, there this kind of epic fable creature and, you know, and they want their big day captured. So for me, it just made sense. Right. And then, you know, kind of on the back side of that, being in the skateboarding industry, you know, creature skateboards, I don’t know if I can throw that brand out there, but Creature skateboards is always so cool to me. I love their artwork is very fantastical. And so yeah, so Fable Creature kind of stemmed from my love of action sports, but also this idea of capturing that story that maybe people think you can’t get.
Brian Pruett: [00:18:13] So Sean and I started working together. He’s been gracious to come out and do some videography of the events I’ve done so far this year, So I appreciate that. And I have to tell you, he’s a pretty good director. I felt like I was on the Ellen show yesterday because when he was at the Expo, he even brought something out and set it on and he’s standing right here at this spot. This is where you stand. I was like, No, I’m on a talk show. That’s pretty cool. Well, as I mentioned to you’re also a youth pastor. You do a youth group. So you have a passion for youth, but you also have a great adoption story. So I’d like for you to share that.
Sean Berney: [00:18:44] Yeah. Yeah. So I’ve always had a passion for kids, just, you know, young people. I think that, you know, we’re we’re in this world where we’re, you know, sometimes the it’s easy to neglect a generation, right? It’s easy to just kind of say, oh, like maybe they’re there are lost cause. And I think this, you know, during the pandemic and things like that, I heard all these people and political individuals talking about, you know, it’s like the worst generation ever. Right? You know, and and to me, it’s like, well, that’s because of us, right? Like, that’s not because of them. And so I’ve always had a passion for for for young people and just, you know, being a part of that mentorship in their lives. And so, yeah, I do I do a middle school in high school student, pastor or, you know, leader, whatever you want to call it. I’m not ordained or anything. I volunteer doing that. But yeah, so my wife and I, we’ve been we’ve been together for about eight years now and seven or eight years. And we, you know, once we got married, we had kind of had the discussion of we weren’t going to have kids, like we just had made the decision that we weren’t going to have our own biological kids. And, you know, and, you know, but I think God has different plans for us sometimes, Right. You know, when we talk about not having kids because we were very adventurous and kind of wild and we were talking I mean, we were in the conversation of like, we’re going to build out this conversion van and we’re going to basically travel around and live in different states and, you know, and work and whatnot.
Sean Berney: [00:20:06] And as we’re having this conversation, you know, we we started to see that there were some there were some opportunities and some signs of concern with with our nieces and their mom. And, you know, so we, you know, kind of like everybody else, we try to support that support, you know, my wife’s sister and, you know, and support the girls ever we could. So we were kind of going back and forth between here in Virginia a lot. And, you know, we really had no intention or anything like that on our radar, like as far as like adoption or taking them, that was never a conversation it was really trying to support. Their mom through that through some of those addictions that she was having. Right. That was always our number one. And, you know, we were coming up to our one year anniversary. Like I said, we don’t one year married. Right. Coming up to our one year anniversary anniversary. And we were planning this huge backpacking trip. We were going to be gone for like a week, you know, just totally off grid backpacking. And, you know, we we’d finally kind of it was about Easter, I think we were getting close to.
Sean Berney: [00:21:10] And we had we had seen the girls and seeing their mom and we realized that there was a real a real problem. So we had you know, when somebody is battling with addiction, right, they’re not always thinking clearly, you know, and they think that they can. They’ve got it right. I’ve got it. I can manage it, you know, But in reality is that’s that’s not the case. Right. They really need to tackle that addiction problem. And, you know, and she’ll be okay with me talking about she’s been sober for two years. She’s it’s fantastic. But we’ll get to that. But anyways, so long story short, my wife and I had kind of made this decision like, we need to step in, right? We need to do something. And so we had we had talked to her sister and said, hey, why don’t you bring the girls down to us? We’ll take them on a vacation with us for a couple of weeks. And and you essentially can can go to rehab and get help. And so she came down and, you know, as you know, kind of that the I think the key the key word here is doing it out of love. Right. You know, that that love, you know, she she had made the decision to leave him with us so she could go back and and go to rehab. Well, unfortunately, that that wasn’t necessarily what had happened. And she went back and and she was kind of free of of her girls for for the first time in her life.
Sean Berney: [00:22:24] And, you know, and that just really kind of led her down an even deeper, darker path of of addiction. And so we went through the process of of really just like we don’t know what to do. You know, she didn’t she didn’t come back to pick them up on the date that we had talked about. And then when she did show up, she was like, I can’t do it right. And so that’s where that that that love comes into play. And she knew that, you know, leaving them with us, they’d be safe, right, while she she went through this process. So you know one year into marriage. Right. You know, going on. And we were like, we’re going on her one year anniversary. We ended up changing all of our plans. You know, we basically packed our backpacks away and we went out and and bought a camper, a small camper, and just changed everything because I was like, wow, you know, these girls are you know, they’ve never been camping before, right? They don’t know anything about that. And it’s like, well, we’ll kill them if they go on this, you know, 30 mile excursion. And so which we were right because we went on like a one mile hike and halfway through they were dying, you know, So. So yeah. So we just kind of changed our lives completely around for that.
Sean Berney: [00:23:26] And, you know, the the interesting thing about we’re where we’re kind of at is like, you know, we spent years really just not knowing what to do. And so, you know, after the first couple of months of her, you know, not coming back and not getting into rehab, we we had to kind of go to this process of like, okay, we need to seek some legal counsel and figure out what we want to do. Because, you know, the scariest thing for us is, you know, her. You know, she’s a she has addiction problems and she’s all over the place. And we don’t know where she’s at. Right. There was zero communication. It’s like a she going to show up one day. And the the girl’s father was was in prison at the time. And so he had he’d been in and out of jail pretty much their whole lives. And and he was you know, he had basically three strikes. He was a felon. And so they ended up deporting him back to El Salvador. And that was another thing that we were like, okay, well, you know, we don’t have to worry about him showing up. We don’t know what’s going on, because at the time we had absolutely zero legal protection. The girls were just staying with us and we had somehow figured out how to enroll them in school. You know, we had gotten all their documents, but they well, anyways, we found out that their dad had actually illegally came back into the country somehow.
Sean Berney: [00:24:37] And so we were just really terrified. Like, you know, we don’t know what’s going on. And so we were on high alert for for really a process of two years, you know, And during that time, we were going to regular visits at the courthouse and we had a I think it’s called a guardian ad litem, which is another really crazy thing. You know, you’re talking about the the foster care system and how wild that is. You know, when we’re talking about private adoption versus the foster care, there are so many kids in the foster care system that, you know, one guardian ad litem or representative is essentially monitoring 100 plus kids at a time, which is mind boggling. Right? Totally mind boggling. Like they have. They’re so short staff, They’re so short resourced. And, you know, so we but we had a great relationship with her and she would come and visit us and things like that. But but like I said, it was a really wild couple of years. And, you know, I think that the thing that got us through it with them because it’s a little bit different situation, right? The the girls, we were the cool aunt and uncle, right? They like to come and visit us and then we. Went from being the cool aunt and uncle to being parents. So we were no longer cool and I thought I was going to be the coolest dad ever, right? I’m like, Man, I skateboard.
Sean Berney: [00:25:51] I was in a band. They do all this cool stuff. No, that is not the case. When you when you become the parent, you were pretty much no longer cool. Your cool is out the window, but in all the things you tell them is not cool, but all the things. Somebody could tell them the same thing and it’s the coolest thing ever. And I’m just like, whatever. But, you know, I think, you know, the girls have been with us for for just over five years now. And, you know, as a as a great praise report and how God works in just amazing ways is, you know, my wife’s sister, she’s been sober for a couple of years and she actually stays with us on the weekends, which is fantastic. So she’s just been doing a fantastic job. And, you know, but that that brings up a whole different set of emotions, you know, because I immediately took this, my wife and I both took the stance like, we’re mom and dad, right? We’re we’re these we’re these girls parents. And, you know, that’s that’s hard on them, right? Because in their hearts, you know, mom is still out there, Right? You know, and dad wasn’t really in the picture, you know, but but mom was still out there. And so they’re really holding on to that. And we had early conversations about adoption and things like that.
Sean Berney: [00:26:53] And at the end of the day, you know, that wasn’t really what they what they were interested in, you know, and. What my wife and I had to come to. The realization was that it wasn’t about us, Right. You know? It was not like making that decision for them. It’s not about us. It was about taking care of them, and it was about putting ourselves in this position of like, we are always going to make sure that they want for nothing. Right. But reunification with their mom was one of the most important things for us, you know? And so it’s a hard barrier because you put yourself in this parental position like like, you know, those girls will never not be my daughters, never right to the day I die. That’s that’s where it’s at, you know? But, you know, I didn’t I guess we got into this position where we didn’t need that piece of paper to do it, but we wanted it right. You know, we selfishly wanted that paper. And not that it’s selfish by any means, but I mean, I think just in this particular situation, you know, you have to and I think that’s the the struggle with fostering, right. You know, you foster and you it’s hard because at any given time those child’s can this child can children can go away. Right go back to their paternal families. And that’s that’s really hard emotionally for people.
Sean Berney: [00:28:05] Like really hard. I mean, I know we’ve gone through it and we’re still going through it. Right. But but anyways, at the end of the day, I think that, you know, anybody that that wants to go that route. Right, versus the private route, which which is amazing, by the way, versus the private route. And they do want to go to that foster route or they want to go to maybe taking on a family member is you have to make sure you’re constantly reminding yourself that it’s not about you. Right. It’s not about you. It’s not about your needs. It’s about their needs, because children can absolutely fill needs in your life. Like, you know what I mean? Like they those girls fill fill a place in my heart that I never knew that I needed or wanted. And selfishly and you know, and it’s like I said, they’ll always be my daughters. But I’m so, so stoked that their mom is back in their life and she’s doing well and she’s been know since she’s been staying with us. And we’re we’re this really awesome, cohesive unit at this point, which I think is really rare in the world we live in. So it’s again, it’s a it’s a it’s a, a story of struggle, but a story of like great success. And and it’s also just this, you know, this constant proof that, like, God is real. And as many plans as you make, his plans are always going to supersede yours. Yeah.
Brian Pruett: [00:29:24] Yeah. You never know how he’s working. And, you know, that’s that’s incredible. So how old were they when when you guys officially adopted them?
Sean Berney: [00:29:31] So. So when they came to stay with this, they were nine and 11, and now they are 13 and 15. My 15 year old’s about 16. She’s about to get her driver’s license boyfriend. You know, I really like her boyfriend, but I also kind of hate him, you know.
Brian Pruett: [00:29:45] Get the shotgun ready.
Sean Berney: [00:29:46] Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. And but no, he’s a he’s a he’s a good guy. And and then my my youngest girl, 13, you know, all her, all she thinks about is volleyball. Like, that’s it, man. Volleyball is life. And so, so she’s, she’s on her way to be becoming a professional volleyball player. We’ll see. But yeah, so like I said, it’s been about five years. Just over five years.
Brian Pruett: [00:30:06] Awesome. So obviously you’ve got one an infant story, one that’s a little older. Can you share some advice for somebody who’s thinking about any kind of adoption? You know, what Would you give advice would you give them?
Sean Berney: [00:30:18] Yeah, I think I think number one is is is listen, listen to God like you need to you need to listen to him and you need to you need to make you need to pray. Right. You know, you need to make sure that what the the journey that you’re about to undertake is is long. And there are a lot of highs, but there are a lot of lows. Right. And I think that it’s really important to just go into it with that mindset of like, it’s not always going to be happy days, there’s going to be rain. And, you know, and I think that if you going into the fostering to adopt kind of direction specifically is honesty is honesty, right. Being honest with them because there’s a really good chance that there wasn’t a lot of honesty leading up to that particular time in their life. Right. So just always being honest with them that that was our always our number one rule. Like we’re always going to be honest with you. We’re always going to tell you the truth. We’re always going to tell you what’s going on, because we don’t want you to get to a certain age and be like, Oh, you you help withheld that stuff from us, right? So we were always honest with them, which is not always easy, you know? And then the other one is. Pick your battles, right? Like you don’t need to sweat the small stuff. You know, we all have in our mind the way we want to raise our children or the way our children should be raised. But when you are taking taking children into your home, that might be at a certain age.
Sean Berney: [00:31:37] Maybe they’re a little bit older. You know, they come with with already kind of a fixed thought process. Right. And, you know, I think when you think about like, oh, like I don’t want my my child to dye their hair or something like that. I mean, that is small potatoes, right? Like that is way small potatoes and, you know, or just anything like social media, things like that. You know, I’m a really big fan of limiting those things. But when kids move to your home, there’s a good chance that they’ve had like untethered access to social media this entire time. And just cutting the cord on them is is a really terrible decision because they’re going to it’s like adequate draws, right? They’re going to hate you. It’s a terrible decision. So you’ve got to take those things in stride, right? And you have to implement different things in a way that’s going to that’s going to encourage their growth. Right. And encourage them to start thinking for themselves because you don’t want to be that person that’s just telling them how to think like you want to teach them how to think because that’s going to serve them so much better in the long run of their life versus you saying, No, this is what we believe, this is how we think, this is what you should do. It’s just never a good idea. So again, it’s about giving them the tools to think for themselves and giving them the tools to be successful in life.
Brian Pruett: [00:32:48] If somebody wants to get a hold of you for your for videography and they want to work with you, how can they do that?
Sean Berney: [00:32:53] Yeah, so you can go to my website WW feeble creature dot com or you can email me at Sean B that’s ASEAN be at fable creature dot com as well.
Brian Pruett: [00:33:04] Sean thanks for coming and sharing your story. Do you mind sticking around listen to this next story. Absolutely. So my next guest Tim Abbott, probably the best thing to do is ask him what he doesn’t do. But Tim is Tim’s got a I mean, I don’t know anybody who’s got a bigger heart. I mean, if it could, it probably busting out of his his chest. But as you can see a sweatshirt love right. That’s what we’re talking about today And he I don’t know if you did on a purpose, but that’s great. Just some few of the highlights. I know that you’ve you were a journalist for the US Navy, correct? You’ve or you were a city councilman for your city of you, Harley. You work for Kaiser. But your your passion is just people.
Tim Abbott: [00:33:46] Yeah.
Brian Pruett: [00:33:47] And you love that one thing that you and I have in common other than that is that we’re both graduates of KSU.
Tim Abbott: [00:33:51] Yeah.
Brian Pruett: [00:33:52] Out and go basketball there. They could make the big dance this year. It’s exciting. So you have the same kind of degree that I do in communications. So a Bachelor of Science in that a lot of BS.
Tim Abbott: [00:34:03] Yes. Yes.
Brian Pruett: [00:34:06] I have.
Tim Abbott: [00:34:06] Today.
Brian Pruett: [00:34:07] Right. No, we’ll save that for the afternoon.
Brian Pruett: [00:34:09] I have two BS and I’m a little mistress of BS, so I’ve got a lot of it. So but your big passion that you do is you’re the board chair for the good neighbor homeless shelter. That’s true there in Cartersville. Yeah. And you did you started a thing called Night in the Box.
Tim Abbott: [00:34:24] Right, right.
Brian Pruett: [00:34:25] Right. First of all, share that and the good name for homeless shelter and just your story.
Tim Abbott: [00:34:32] Yeah, the story around the the homeless shelter and my involvement. Yeah. So I’m a late bloomer in life. Didn’t even think I should think about God. And then when I was 30 years old, I literally found myself in emotional, physical, spiritual and financial bankruptcy. All through all four areas. I was just bankrupt and the good times I were having we’re no longer good and divorced twice and had a son that I wasn’t getting to see. And I used to run around this church in Marietta, East Side Baptist Church and weird things. Like every time I ran around there, like I heard a whisper come inside and I thought Christians were the weirdest people in the world. Like, goes to church and you’re singing all these songs and talking about this guy you’ve never seen named Jesus and clapping your hands. And in a moment of desperation in 1996, with my son being a year old, it was a Sunday night and I had nothing left in the tank. Buckhead running life wasn’t working for me anymore, and all the things I was doing to try to comfort myself with things that you shouldn’t be putting in your body wasn’t working anymore. So I went to that church. And this story is important because it leads into the adoption story. I walked in that church on a Sunday night thinking not that many people would be there, and I could sit in the back and I don’t even know what like quit whispering to me, I’ll go and then we’re done, right? I saw the back head of a blond and still being so carnal of mine, I’m like.
Tim Abbott: [00:36:23] Kind like she’s mine. Tonight. I’m taking her out. I went and sat down right next to her, and after church, just begged her to go out with me and walked her to her car. She didn’t ask me to. I just did it. And she literally said, I’m going home to do my laundry. If you want to see me again, you’ll come to Sunday school. Now, I thought that was stupid. Sunday schools for five year olds. But I did. And it took three years and hundreds of hours of counseling. But Lisa Abbott is now my wife and God was giving her to me for a purpose that I couldn’t see. So I told you that story because before I got it into the Good Neighbor shelter and adoption, if it wasn’t for that desperation and me listening to that little voice in my head and heart, which I just again thought was weird, none of the rest of what I tell you would make sense. It would all sound unplanned, but it was very much planned. So yeah, So she became my wife, but she broke up with me at least six times. Real quick story. She made me go to counseling with her before she would even date me. And the counselor came out and talked to me. Then he talked to her, and he came out and he looked at her and he goes, I wouldn’t date him. He goes, He’s got a lot of work to do.
Brian Pruett: [00:37:51] Wow.
Tim Abbott: [00:37:52] Talk about a moment in your life that broke your heart. You know, I was beginning to get a sense I was worthless and I would never have a good relationship. And and but that counselor said one thing to me. He said, Do you want to live the legacy that your family gave you? Or do you want to live the legacy that God’s created for you? And you can lean and and a champion rose up in my heart just through that one question. And I dug in and it hurt so many, many years later. There was a long story. And so so this is what I tell people when I travel and have to go to California. If you’re sitting in the seat next to me, I got your 4 hours. So we don’t have 4 hours here. So you’ll get you’ll get the little version. But yeah, just fast forward, moved to Bartow County and God had a plan for us there. And then I in 2016, I was literally walking down the street at a prayer breakfast and I said to my friend John Parton, I said, God is opening up discretionary time for me to do things with my life, but I don’t know what to do with it here and I want to get involved. And he picked up the phone. He called the CEO of the chamber and he said, If you’ll let this guy in leadership, Bartow, he’ll pay you back. So I got in that leadership class and and did a lot of neat things. But one of the things was I was on a committee with the executive director of the Good Neighbor Homeless Shelter, and she called me one day.
Tim Abbott: [00:39:26] Usually when people call me and I don’t know them, I figure that I talk a lot. And I figured I said something that I shouldn’t have said, right? I’ve offended you because remember, I didn’t become a Christian until 30. I had a lot of filters to like, get out, you know? And so I picked up the phone. I said, What did I say to you? She goes, What? I said, Did I offend you yet? And she goes, No. And I said, I’m working on it. So she said, Hey, I want you to do this thing called Dancing with the Stars. It’s a benefit for the good neighbor homeless shelter. She goes, You’re going to tell me you can’t dance, and you probably can’t. But I think that you can help us raise money. Never raised a dollar for anybody before besides myself. And so I just said yes and then get to the night in the box. I had to do a fundraiser and I asked God, like, how can I do something outside of like cocktail parties or silent auctions, like something really unique nobody’s doing? And I couldn’t find the answer. So I asked community leaders to sit down with me and just listen to my heart about going to live in the woods for a week so that I can actually know the people that I’m trying to help. And they said, That’s a horrible idea. They said, Those are tight knit communities and you won’t be welcomed and it’s dangerous.
Tim Abbott: [00:40:40] And then a guy named Doug Belisle looked at me and he said, You want to do Night in a Box? And I said, Yes, what is it? And he had a friend in Colorado doing that. So I’ll just end that story here. Brian was saying what was born out of that in January 2019, on the coldest night in January, there it was 21 degrees. I spent 36 hours on the street corner in Cartersville, Georgia, telling people that God loves all people, regardless of socioeconomic status, that if we’re going to be a community that matters, then we have to be a community of generosity and service. And that if you’re listening to my story about homeless people, we have a homeless shelter that needs your help and would you donate and help? And that 36 hours, I raised almost $6,000 just by telling the stories I’m telling here today. And so since then, we’ve had eight night in the box events and we now involve families and corporations, and we go out to a corner once a year and then I do it by myself just because I love it. And so I’ll end up doing it this month or next month. So that’s the good neighbor shelter. They asked me to be on the board. It doesn’t matter if I was on the board, I’m still helping them. And so but it does give me a position to help promote their mission and help people. So anyways, Brian, That’s it.
Brian Pruett: [00:42:10] Oh, so I mean, wow, Right, right. But you’re not done. So you also have an incredible adoption story, so please share that.
Tim Abbott: [00:42:17] Yeah. Yeah. So, Bree, people call you Bree.
Brianna Johnson: [00:42:21] Yes, they.
Tim Abbott: [00:42:21] Do. Do you let them?
Brianna Johnson: [00:42:22] Yes.
Tim Abbott: [00:42:23] Okay. So that’s the second part of that. Easier to.
Brian Pruett: [00:42:25] Remember.
Tim Abbott: [00:42:26] And Shawn, I love your stories of courage and love and and openness. And I’m going to I’m going to just lean into that story to my wife’s biggest dream, Lisa, was to have children. And and so when we got married, was becoming clear that wasn’t going to happen. And it was breaking her heart. And I, I was not equipped, like, I don’t know what to do with female emotions. Like, you know, she’ll tell you after 23 years of marriage, I’m like a sophomore in college. I’m still trying to, you know, be an understanding husband. So, you know, we spent money that we didn’t have a ton of money we didn’t have on all the medical opportunities that are. And she got pregnant but then lost it, you know, and that that was, as you might imagine, was really hard. And and so just a time of despair for her. And I mean, three years of despair of like, what are you going to do, God? And like I said, we already spent a ton of money that we didn’t have at the time. And so we just kept praying and we ended up moving to Bartow County. And Lisa got up one morning and she said, We’re going to go to a foster care orientation class. And I said, That is the worst idea I’ve ever heard. I was such a sensitive husband.
Tim Abbott: [00:44:01] And she goes, No. And she goes, I really want to do this. And I said, okay. So we went to that class and much like you talked about Bri and the things that you talked about, Sean, that class was like scared straight from some jail, right? They really tried to convince you this is not your dream. If you want to adopt children, the kids are going to get are the most messed up kids in the world, and they really are. So Lisa left the class just crying and she goes like, We can’t do this. I’m not doing this. So in a flip, I said, Oh, yes, we are. I said, You said that the Lord told you that we should do this. And I said, So we are not. Now, you know, she’s been a Christian all of her life. I’m kind of a brand new Christian, but I’m like, if God says who he is, we are diving in. And so we went and that began our adoption story. The they tell you you’ll never get an infant to adopt. Two weeks after we went through all of our orientations, six weeks, we got a phone call and they had an infant baby girl and she was six weeks old and we got her. Another week after that, they had another infant, little girl. She was three weeks old and we got her.
Tim Abbott: [00:45:22] And so this is all in 2003. And it was a few weeks after that that Lisa got a phone call from her mom. Crazy stuff, just crazy that her mom’s hairdresser knew a lady and her husband was a Navy chief and one of his direct reports wanted to abort. And he said, if you’ll just keep the child, I’ll help you find adoption. So through Lisa’s mom’s hairdresser, we get this phone call of like, Hey, I hear you want to adopt. We have a child you can adopt. And so here we have a three week old and a six week old and and we’re like, Oh, gosh, I don’t know, you know, But this is an adoption and foster care is not an adoption right now. And the things that you guys talked about were true, that we Lisa, was just so afraid there’s we’re going to fall in love with these kids and they’re going back to their biological home. So we said, okay, well, we got to we have to do the adoption thing. Then, like God is opening up this door that mom changed her mind so many times. But then she delivered him and told the doctors that she didn’t want to see him. So we got a phone call and since she was in the services, JAG took care of her legal matters.
Tim Abbott: [00:46:42] We got a lawyer real quick, took care of our legal matters. And so we went and got Sam. So here we are now, 2003. We have Samuel, who is three weeks old. We have Emily, who is six weeks old, and we have Hannah. And I’m going to show you guys in the room. You can’t see it on the radio. And we have Hannah, who is ten weeks old. So in two, in 2003. Never have raised a kid. We have a three week old, a six week old and a ten week old. And people are like, Oh, that was been so fun. It was so and like, seriously the most stressful time of our marriage. It was a really tough year. You talked about, though, a warming bottle. I am in Walmart. When we got the first delivery from Bartow County sheriff, who was also our neighbor, you know, of Emily. And I’m in there and I’m like, I what do I buy? I mean, they got food, they got all these things. And like, we had no idea. And we were making 22 bottles a night just to get through the next day. And then Lisa’s working as a teacher in Cobb County still. So we’re taking the kids to daycare. I’ve never seen a river of snotty noses like that. You just can’t stay healthy. And and I just started my career with Kaiser Permanente, a health care organization, three years into it.
Tim Abbott: [00:48:11] And the kids are sick. Somebody’s got to stay home and we’re calling off work. And then one of my best husband moments ever when we had to call off work. And I said, Well, you call off work. You’re just a teacher. Oh, holy cow. So the stress of those moments and the stupid like we were in fear and we were in stress. We knew that God had done something like I work in big time strategy at Kaiser Permanente, like 700 people in a department. The story I’m telling can only be a God story, right? Because those foster kids, Emily and Hannah, they came up for adoption. And Sam we adopted. And so we’re in the stressful moment of these history. We know God’s doing something. And I make a statement like that. And it was so hurtful, right? I mean, it’s so hurtful, but it didn’t make us pause and say, wait a minute. Like, we’re so ingrained in the fire. So we had to have a better, better plan. But it was a very stressful year. But it’s a very beautiful story of how you can’t plan that. And like in our stories, I hear you guys talk and like you say, What will you tell people about their adoption stories that are desires or the pain they’re going through of not being able to have a child or however it might come? Like just be open.
Tim Abbott: [00:49:39] Like, just like, just be open. We wanted to adopt one child that we were praying for, and I would say just like just be open, talk to people like Bree talked, people like Shawn, like don’t be afraid of the foster care environment. Like, I’m not saying that will be your story, but just be open. And even if you don’t like somebody, listen, this doesn’t believe in God. I totally get that. It was a crazy story to me, and Jesus just showed himself to us. And I believe I’m nobody special. Honestly, I’m a dressed up trainwreck held together by the grace of God every single day. Just lean into it and don’t over overthink it. And the other thing I like to give people kind of a visual of, So Lisa was adopted when she was three months old, right? My grandparents raised me since I was two, and God began to reveal and I tell my kids this all the time, they’re they’re all 319 right now. And I tell them this all the time. There are 7 billion people approximately, in the world, and the God of this universe somehow said that US five are going to do life together. Lisa Being adopted. Tim Not being raised by his parents, you three not knowing your biological parents.
Tim Abbott: [00:51:00] And God said, Hey, why don’t you guys go do life together? 7 billion people and you put us five together. We didn’t have a strategy. We didn’t. We were out of money. We were out of hope. And so we just prayed and ask. And then we got brave. And it actually made our marriage stronger, even though that was a very difficult year. So, yeah, I don’t know what questions you have. And there’s all kinds of things that didn’t go well and stuff, but I just tell people to be of hope. We ended up adopting like three kids for $1,500 because the foster care system would have been nice then. Yeah, right, right. Well, and I don’t say that in a in a in a bragging way, like, I don’t even understand it like clearly myself, except that just lean in and if, you know, God lean in and if you don’t know God lean in like it doesn’t matter. Like just just start asking and talking and yeah, it’s I could talk about it all day long because, you know, for a guy that wasn’t a Christian, God just started showing me like, I can do things. And with your life that you never thought were possible, and I still marvel at it. I don’t even know what to say.
Brian Pruett: [00:52:20] I just all you have to do is if you read your Bible, you can see everybody he used, right? None of them. I mean, you have a murderer, you have a rapist, and he used them. So it doesn’t matter. Yeah. What your situation is, is God can use you for great. You know, I do have one question. How is it with the three? And, you know, I guess triplets that aren’t really biological triplets, but there’s one thing, they’re older than the other and that kind of stuff.
Tim Abbott: [00:52:43] Yeah. You know, well, they know who’s the oldest out of them all. And it’s but there’s not really a pecking order there. They’re three very, very different kids. Very, very different kids. And one of the hard parent moments for everybody, for everybody is, I didn’t teach you that. You didn’t see that from me. So they are very different. They get along when they’re together, but it gets very loud and they like to pick on each other, which I was like that too. But as a parent, I don’t like it, you know what I mean? So but yeah, they’re they’re they’re very different and they do their own thing. One of the really neat things about Lisa being adopted is and I told Brian, I wish Lisa could be here because she’s just great at this, but she knows all their back stories like and you know, and I told the kids, you know, you’re in. They all know me. I mean, there’s no there’s no hidden thing. Like they what Lisa knows about their biological parents. They know if they ever want to meet them. We said, come to us. Let us help you, because you’ll make up things in your mind that are grand. And it may be grand and it may not be grand. So Lisa’s very open about that with them. And if they have any questions or anything, she has all their files. And so, you know, whatever they want. And we ask like, do you have questions even at 19, like, you know, you got questions getting curiosities, things like that. So very open. Talk to them about it. She’s a great nurturer for them. I’m just a doer. Like, what do you need? You know, let’s go make it happen. We’ll find somebody. So.
Brian Pruett: [00:54:30] Yeah. So you you talked about the good neighbor homeless shelter. And, you know, I started a monthly trivia show at Saint Angelo’s there in Emerson, and we’re rotating charities and Good Neighbor Homeless Shelter is my charity for February. Yeah, I think I said the wrong date last week because we had Kelly Nagle on and she was talking about her Dances with the Stars this year. She’s doing for that. But February 15th, Wednesday night, 6:00, we will be at San Angelo’s helping with a good neighbor homeless shelter on that. So if somebody wants to get a hold of you just to say how they can help with the good neighbor homeless shelter, how can they do that?
Tim Abbott: [00:55:02] Yeah, let’s do that. First of all, let’s say this. If anybody’s listening to me and I’ll certainly share this on my Facebook and share it on the Good Neighbor Shelter Facebook, like if you guys are trying to figure out how to get something done for your organization, profit or nonprofit and you want it to be fun, you’ve got to find Brian Pruett and you got to find B’s charitable organization. I’ve met Brian just a month, two months, three months ago, and Cartersville Business Club. And you’re phenomenal because you have the right heart. And then coupled with that, you’ve got the head to get it done and you’re really helping a ton of people. So I just want to make sure I say that. Thank you. If somebody hears it, you’re the guy. Yeah. So the good neighbor shelter is just it’s it’s marvelous. One of the reasons I love it, I tell people, when you spend your money there, I’ll come show you how you’re spending it. Like families, lives are being restored. Women who are escaping domestic abuse and their kids like it’s a home. Like kids don’t want to leave after they, you know, they have to leave. And so it’s a great organization to support. Like you can really see we have a men’s shelter with 14 beds and we have a family female shelter with 35 beds. And so the best way to get a hold of me and find I’m so easy to find if you just go to Tim Abbott and my Facebook page and Bartow County or go to Good neighbor Homeless Shelter Cartersville, or you can even go to night in the box on Facebook and just easy to find our Facebook on Good Neighbor shelter.
Tim Abbott: [00:56:43] We get so much support if we put out there that we got three kids that need backpacks. I mean, we have it within an hour. Just beautiful people, just beautiful people that want to step up and support or decorate a little girl’s room who’s never had a room decorated before. But I would say that’s the easiest. I’ll give you my phone number. There’s there’s really no secrets about me because when I tell you the bad side of me, I’m just glorifying God that he brought me out of that. So it’s six, seven, 85969415. And yeah you can. We’re easy to find at the shelter I’m easy to find. I usually post when I go to church if you want to talk like God was weird to me at one time too. I think the Bible is an exploration of a bunch of strange stories that have a really godly point, you know? So I tell people, Don’t be embarrassed that it all seems weird. I get that. So I usually post on there, like, if you want to talk, just come find me so I can talk forever.
Brian Pruett: [00:57:43] Tim, I appreciate you coming and sharing your story while we’re wrapping up. What I’ve started doing is I like to get the folks that are here. I mean, you’ve all shared incredible stories. You share some advice for those that might be looking, doing some adoption. But I want you two guys to share either a quote or a word or something that people can go the rest of 2023 and beyond of what they what just some some encouraging words or some inspiration. So, Brianna, what do you got?
Brianna Johnson: [00:58:11] I keep coming back to Peter where he says, cast your care upon him for he cares for you.
Sean Berney: [00:58:19] Sean Yeah, I mean, I kind of have two things and I do have a quote. I know we’re on on time here, but I think one of the, the coolest things that I’ve heard from from all of the stories and the one thing that makes me feel really encouraged is, is the honesty piece, Right. You know, being really honest with you, with those loved ones and with your kids, you know, And if you’re going through this process, it just gives me a little bit of, you know, confirmation that we went the right route, you know, and in making sure that those honest conversations were happening. And, you know, and I think the other thing is, is unconditional love. You know, we we think about unconditional love as a feeling, right, when in reality, it’s a choice. You know, we you have to wake up and you have to choose every day that you’re going to give those children unconditional love, you know? And then if you’re if you’re thinking about doing the the foster the foster piece, right. You know, it’s like don’t don’t shy away from it. You know, it’s it’s scary. But but and you yeah that child may be reunified with their parents and that’s that’s the goal right But but that doesn’t mean that means you need to wake up every day with that choice of unconditionally love that child no matter what is happening, what they’ve been through. And if that leads to adoption, that is that’s amazing, right? That is fantastic. But yeah, so that’s just a little thing. But my quote would be from from Shar, which is you see things and you say, Why? But I dream things that never were. And I say, why not? And the idea behind that is that anything is possible, right? There’s there’s nothing impossible. And a lot of people are going to be naysayers to the things that you want to do in life, you know, And but but reality. God always has his plan.
Tim Abbott: [00:59:56] Jim Yeah, so many things run through my head. Brian So I’ll try to get it down to a soundbite. I wish people could experience this almost live with the five of us in this room. And I really like what you said about unconditional love. It’s, it’s hard to understand things in life. Like I really didn’t understand Grace and God showed me that through my wife, Lisa. I was a mess and she’s loved me in my worst parts. And people will say, Well, what do you love about Lisa most? And I’ll say, I’d rather have a bad day with her than a good day without her. So so to quote, to wrap it up and I guess is I really struggled, believe it or not, with communication and being around people before I became a Christian. And then God showed me and then I really struggled because I talk so much about like, does anybody really care what you’re saying? And it sounds like you’re bragging. And I wasn’t. I was just trying to draw people in to something that they don’t even see and I don’t see. So I heard this quote, and it’s really helped me. Being humble wasn’t thinking less of yourself, but it’s thinking of yourself less. So I just had to embrace what God was doing with me by way of communication, community involvement, marriage and all that and that. I could talk about it. And I wasn’t trying to draw attention to myself, but hopefully to be an encourager for others because I think we’re all broken and we all need words of encouragement, unconditional love and people to lean in to our lives like mine was leaned into. So I tried to lean in to others. So don’t let being humble stop you from saying what you need to say and let God worry about the outcome if your heart’s in the right place.
Brian Pruett: [01:01:56] That’s right. I told you last week that I was told by my mother that I needed to think of a new word, but all I can say is just awesome.
Stone Payton: [01:02:03] I think that sums it up. Yeah, it’s a perfect word.
Brian Pruett: [01:02:06] All right, guys, Everybody there listening. Let’s remember, let’s be positive and let’s be charitable.
