Junk Removal with Lewis Vandervalk

This is episode number 165 of The Homeowner Show.

Whether you're DIY, DIY, we're looking to hire, ready to hire.

We're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. That was really, really bad. Thanks for showing up, guys. My name is Kevin Hackett and this is Craig Williams.

Greatest intro ever. I love it. I had nothing to do with it. It was beautiful. It was my favorite thing. Y'all, Kevin has cheat sheets.

Yeah, no, well, I actually do have cheat sheets, but I never use it anymore. This is episode 165. I don't need a cheat sheet for the intro anymore. I just— everything's screwed up tonight.

It's your security blanket. It wasn't there, and so I don't know what to do.

I don't know, man. Freaking out over here.

Freaking out, freaking out.

Things are different.

We don't like it.

I don't know, man. How are you tonight?

Dude, I'm exhausted.

Yeah, I know you are, man.

I am so— I'm here, I'm present. I'm probably not gonna be on topic. I may ramble a bit.

Okay.

But I'm awake.

And this is Craig tired. This is not 2 bourbon Craig.

It's different than 2 bourbon Craig. It's a totally different Craig.

Yeah, totally different.

So we'll see how that— I don't know that we've ever had exhausted Craig. Exhausted Craig can be silly.

It's a term that I don't know if you've— a lot of people, whenever I use this term, they don't know what I'm talking about. But I use the term simpled out.

What is it?

Simpled out.

Simpled out.

Yeah, you get simpled out whenever you get so exhausted that you become silly.

Okay.

I call it simpled out. I don't know where I came up with that. My mom probably told it to me. I don't know.

Hmm.

But that's what I call it.

My, my youngest tonight was asking me— I think she was asking— she was trying to ask me what dagnabbit means. One, I was too tired to answer that question. Two, she said, how— what does dang tabbit mean?

Of course she— of course she said it wrong.

And so I always had to do like a double take. I was like, dang tabbit. Is that like a cartoon?

Yeah.

I don't know. What is that?

Okay, so—

I was like Googling it. I was like, hang on. No, you're— dagnabbit.

That's it. So the question is, who says that, you or your wife?

Oh, me.

Okay.

My wife would never say something like that. She is— she's too highbrow.

Yeah.

She would never deign to speak such lowly colloquialisms.

Oh, man. That's good. So tell us why you're tired.

Uh, so I don't even know what I did on Friday.

A lot, I'm sure.

I— yeah, well, no, I had— that was like my longest work day of the week.

I just—

but anyway, Saturday we ended up getting club seats to go to the A&M-Auburn game.

That worked out well for you.

It was so good.

As an A&M fan.

Yes. Yeah, it worked out as an A&M fan. It just worked out in general because the tickets were amazing. Yeah, um, my friend Michael's hooked us up. And one, like, it was on the alumni side, which I'm so happy to be on because it's in the shade and all this good stuff.

And you don't have to stand the entire game.

You don't have to stand the whole game. Um, but there— and there's like, you know, a bar and stuff right there behind. And, uh, we had a parking pass like right next to the stadium, which is just unheard of. Yeah, we got to take escalators up to our seats. It was just a whole beautiful experience. Nice. Leaving town was a whole other thing. Um, but then the next day, uh, that afternoon I left and went to Fort Worth.

Yeah.

And, uh, went and hung out with my, my buddies, uh, Wes and Abby, and we went to this really cool gun range, uh, there in Fort Worth. I think it's called Smart Shooters. But like, anyway, what was cool about it is you could get your own private, uh, range suite.

Yeah.

And it was unlimited time. Um, and, you know, a bunch of targets and different things like that. And we just, we just went through a ton.

I mean, I guess they figure eventually you're going to run out of ammo, which means you have to leave, right?

Joke was on them. I brought like 500 rounds of .22.

Like one of those, one of those buckets.

Yeah.

Like a bucket of .22. Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

So yeah, yeah, yeah. We had a, we had a really, really good time and they had like this whole gun wall and I think it was, I think it was $15. And you could swap out any of the guns on the wall and take them back there and shoot them as long as you had ammo for them.

Like 007 style?

It was cool. Yeah, it was like, it was like this whole, like, you know, like a peg wall full of nothing but guns, handguns and semi-autos.

Nice.

Um, my favorite one was this, uh, we shot this Ruger 9mm rifle.

Interesting.

That had a magazine load instead. Yeah. So, so like, for those of you that— I, I shoot a Ruger. And an SR9. And, and so what's cool about this rifle is you can take your magazine out of your handgun and it just slides right into the pistol. I mean, to the rifle.

That's cool.

And so you can, you know, then you have, uh, you can have 17 rounds in your rifle.

Nice.

Um, but they had, they had a, they had an extra magazine there for us for that rifle. And they said, what did they call it? And they like the joystick or something like that.

Oh my goodness.

It held 28 rounds in the magazine, which is completely impractical for a pistol, but for a rifle, yeah, all good.

Yeah, so cool.

But yeah, and for never shooting, they were, they were really good shots.

Yeah, I saw the, uh, the photo of like the aftermath, and I liked your comment, nobody won, but the target lost.

The target lost.

Yeah, that was really, really good. Really, really good. Well, cool, man.

So I'm— and now I'm here.

Now you're here.

And just exhausted.

I mean, you worked today again.

I did work today. Yeah.

Yeah.

And if you're watching this on YouTube, you know that our time, it's 9:30. But for our guest, it's even an hour later because our guest is from Canada.

Yeah, but he's excited because he gets to hang out with us.

Yeah, he is excited. I know he's excited. We're glad to have him. His name is Lewis Vandervalk. Lewis, we are glad to have you. Welcome to The Homeowner Show.

Welcome to The Homeowner Show.

Thanks, boys. I appreciate being here. Appreciate you having me on, and I'm excited to just chop it up with you guys tonight.

Yeah, man, very, very cool. We're glad to have you. Um, Luis, give us a little information about, about who you are. I mean, obviously you're, you're from, uh, the different country to the north and, um, all that cool stuff, but tell us a little bit about who you are. We, um, probably ought to let everybody know that you own a junk removal company, and that's what our episode's going to be about tonight. So Maybe tell us a little bit about who you are and how you got started doing junk removal.

Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So basically, we— well, I'll go back a little bit. So I own a marketing agency. And, you know, I'm in the business of looking for areas that, you know, we can help customers dominate. And in our own backyard, we found junk removal was a easy to dominate niche. So what did we do? We, we kind of looked at things for a little bit, and then my business partner Ryan, myself, we just dove right in. So we got to use all the strategies that we help our clients with and, and turn it into a business that we could kind of practice on, you know, put our money where our mouth is, so to speak. And, and we started that in May, and it's, it's grown really fast and

really well. It's been really, really exciting. So that's, that's the short version of it. Um, you know, on a, on a personal note, you know, I'm a husband, a father to, uh, 2 with another on the way, and, uh, and really enjoying business and family life and figuring out how to mesh them all together and, uh, you know, become better every day at the process.

Man, that's, that's, that's really cool. I, I'm, uh, I'm excited to, to talk to you about this business because, uh, we've actually advertised, uh, the last couple of weeks, uh, about a business called Sustained Growth Solutions. It does a very, very similar thing to the way you do marketing. which is gathering leads for business owners and helping them win by kind of taking that off of their plate. And so that's, from what I understand, that's what you do with your marketing agency, but then you turned it into an actual business. So super, super cool. I'm really interested to know, I think there's a lot of people that like they hear something like junk removal and may not, I mean, are you cleaning

out hoarders' houses or what are you actually doing with junk removal?

So it can vary. It can vary wildly. Like this morning we got a quote that came through off the website for a 30-foot-high barn. So we do junk removal and demolition. So we've done, you know, on the demolition side, we do a lot of shed demos, deck demolition, hot tub removals, that sort of thing. And then junk removal. Yeah, it can be hoarders' houses. We've done a few apartment cleanouts. Where it was just, you know, the tenant was evicted basically, and the apartment owner just couldn't deal with the mess. So we were called in to haul it away. We'll do yard debris cleanup, construction debris cleanup. We haven't gotten any dead bodies yet. But, you know, things like that, right?

Just cleaning up after people, you know, the things that they don't want to do, or, you know, the things that they just don't have time to do.

Hmm. Well, so you mentioned no dead bodies. And I'm curious as to how the law works, like maybe when you find certain things in the house that maybe you can't touch? I mean, are you— do you have like a list that you guys go through when you're cleaning out a space as to like, all right, if we come across this, we gotta, you know, halt production and make a phone call here?

We have not run into anything like that. Obviously, if we found something like that, it would be halt. We haven't run into anything. The only Stipulation, like some people ask us to make sure that we, we take things to the dump. Some of it we donate to local community centers. Um, but we've had a few people say, hey, can I have pictures of this, you know, to make sure that it did go to the dump and someone else isn't using it. Other than that, you know, it would be kind of common sense. You know, if we found a dead body, there's, there's someone else that needs to be called in. That's not our area of expertise. Um, biohazard, that's also not an area of expertise. That kind of falls into the same

category. Um, but for the most part, everything's been fairly tame that we've dealt with.

Yeah. So like if you, if you guys, you know, like we're like cleaning out a shed and there's like used motor oil, you know, what, what would you guys do with that?

So we have disposal, disposal sites for that. So a lot of people, you know, people mostly know you shouldn't dump it down your drain.

Right.

You can't, uh, you know, just throw it in the garbage usually. So we have, uh, disposal sites for that. And, and most companies like ours will have connections who they can take it to, whether it's to be recycled, to be disposed of properly, like paint and whatnot, which can't just be thrown in the garbage or shouldn't be, that sort of thing. So there's, there's a few things around that where, you know, calling us may save you the hassle of, of having to do that, right? Having to go through that, you know, who do I call? Where do I go? How does that all work?

Yeah, I had a very well-cultured cousin one time tell me that used motor oil makes an amazing wood stain. I don't think you should try it. I don't think it's a good idea. It's just something I heard.

Well, yeah, cultured.

I like your— Smell would never leave.

Yeah, no, that's the— that's, that's this— that's the smell that keeps on giving, right? Yeah, just forever and ever. So that does bring me to, to a question though, like, um, do you— like, surely whenever you're going through something, especially like some of these barn demos, right? Like You could reclaim this wood and stuff. So are you able to, you know, as you're removing stuff, go like, okay, this is the junk pile. This is the resale pile. Like, is there any of that going on?

Yeah, there certainly is. I mean, there's, there was one that we did recently. And basically, it was someone had put them out on the curb, you know, easy pickup. It was a ride-on mower and a snowblower. Ryan, you know, took it back. He's like, hey, I'll just, I'll just see what's going on. He had an extra battery. The, the, uh, the ride-on mower fired up and the snow, snow blower still works. So yeah, you know, that he's actually going to use them. Um, a few things we've sold, a lot of it, it comes down to, you know, the timing of going through selling it and whatnot. Some of the stuff will just donate. Um, it does well. It breeds, um,

you know, goodwill in the community to say, hey, we donate a lot of furniture. appliances if they're still working. When we first started, we just basically posted them for free in the buy and sell groups. And then we got a ton of, you know, jobs off of that because people are like, oh, this is so cool. Who are these people? What are they doing? Sure. But yes, there are definitely some things we keep and a few things that we sell, you know, because it's one man's junk is another's treasure, right?

Yeah, for sure.

So it's like doing Storage Wars.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, surely you're coming— I mean, whether you have now or not, you're going to come across a diamond in the rough. Like it's gonna happen, right? I mean, have you come across anything?

It's pretty cool. Like there's, there's some stuff like, I'm not, I'm not actually out in the field too much. Um, there's, there's been only a handful of times that I have been, and I think it's for the better because I am very much a reseller. Uh, in part, I, I, before, before starting my agency, you know, going through school and before that, um, I would buy and I would flip tools. Um, you know, I would flip things on Marketplace. So Our garage would be full of stuff if I was actually out on the trucks. Um, but, uh, but yeah, no, there's definitely some, some things. And, and, you know, you never know what you're going to come up on, right? You know, I've talked

to people in the industry, they've found— I was talking to a guy the other day, he found $10,000.

Jeez.

Like, just— and, and this was a job, I don't remember, he ended up keeping it because he just couldn't get in touch with, you know, whoever it would have been. I don't remember what the job was. But he went through the various avenues and he just ended up having a $10,000 tip on the job.

Geez.

Wow.

That, that's a good day right there. It is. That is a good day.

So, so if you're throwing stuff out, people who are listening, make sure you clean out your pockets and whatnot, because, because we'll probably check quickly.

Yeah, no doubt. So what's your— what, what is your most common reason for someone to call you?

Probably the most frequent call would be things like furniture removal, appliance removal. There's been a few pianos. They pop up fairly regularly. Those are big and heavy, and we, you know, depending on the job, we'll just— we may just cut them to pieces in the area and then haul out the pieces. But some of the smaller stuff is common. We got a lot of deck and shed renovations— or sorry, demolitions. as they were getting ready for renovations, and they wanted to get stuff cleaned out, we'll come in, takes us a couple hours, we'll have the deck out of there. And, you know, we'll go through and clean everything up. So those are, those are some of the common ones.

Yeah, it is. It sounds like a lot of it is like if people are planning to do like a remodeling or like a yard project, and they just want somebody who can do both ends of this, they can, they can knock out the demo and then haul off the junk. Is that, is that what I'm—

yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we've got a few contractors that, that feed us jobs. Um, there's, there's one guy we actually help on the, on the marketing side. He called us in and said, hey, I'm just not gonna have time to actually take the deck out, so we've, we've demoed it if you guys want to just come pick it up. Uh, we had some commercial jobs in the mall, so they were, they were switching stores and they just wanted everything gone. So, so taking all that out, we're bidding on a few jobs now. Um, with some contractors where we're basically subbing, uh, for them. So there's some, some big demo jobs. There's a month-long job we're bidding on right now

where we'll basically go in and do all the demo work ahead of their teams, uh, you know, tearing down the walls, doing the drywall, all that stuff.

Well, and, and as you guys— I'm curious because you're, you know, obviously in a different part of the continent, but have the, the renovation jobs been as hot and heavy as they have been down here? Are they kind of have they been hot and heavy? Are they slowing down because it's colder? What's, what's kind of the market like there right now?

We've, we've noticed more jobs coming in. So we just started in May. So we don't have a full cyclical view of the year. You know, and how that works. Yeah, we're getting more interior stuff than we had previously. Like we just, just this month, we've had 3 big demo jobs that we're bidding on. The barn just came in this morning. Some of it may just be due to the fact that contractors are going inside. So they're starting to bid on their winter work instead of exterior stuff. But I mean, the contracting trades in general, yeah, they've been doing really well. You know, I know lots of contractors, they're just— they have work coming out the ears.

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, and like, I heard you mention this, this barn job. Is it a wooden barn?

It is a wooden barn. It's a shake exterior. I was looking at it because there's actually a market for reselling the wood. I was gonna ask if there's much of that on this barn. But yeah, it's a It's actually kind of a nice looking barn. I think they just need to clear it up.

Yeah. So I mean, like sometimes you get those jobs where you're, you know, taking a barn down, that can be a goldmine. I mean, just because people want that distressed wood.

Well, most of the time it's, it's weathered, right? Well, which means it's gonna last forever if it's interior, you know, if it's put interior.

Yeah, I mean, absolutely.

So yeah, people go crazy for that stuff.

Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah, so, um, when you, when you're doing these, these jobs, I mean, like, do— are you bringing in a dumpster yourself, or do you have trucks that you haul stuff away in? Um, I know that a lot, a lot of people will maybe even do their own junk removal, just put their, put their stuff in a, in a container, then people, you know, someone will come haul it off. What, uh, so, so whenever you're disposing of it, what does that process look like?

Yeah, so we have currently, we have a dump trailer. So we have a pickup and a dump trailer. And basically we'll go to your site. If you have it out on the curb, that makes our job easier and saves you some money. But typically we're going inside, we're picking up, you know, from wherever it is in your house. If you've, if you just have a little bit of junk or your garage or your basement, if it's a whole cleanup, then we'll just go through and take out what they need us to take out. We are looking at getting dumpsters next year. So that's in the plan currently to get a few dumpsters so we can actually take them to a client. They can fill it up and then we just take it away and they pay for the, for the

dump fee. But currently we fill the trailer and then we take a ride to the dump. They know, they weigh us, you know, before we go in and dump it, and then when we come back out they weigh again, and then the difference is what we pay the rate for. So that's currently how we do it, and it's working really well. We'll probably get another trailer and some dumpsters next year, but But, uh, right now it's just the truck and trailer.

That's a way better way than what we do here.

You said weigh a lot just now.

That is a way better way than we do it here.

I just said it twice. It's a way better way to weigh things.

To weigh. I didn't say weigh.

Oh, okay.

Just, yeah, I didn't do, I didn't use the W-E-I-G-H. Not that tired.

How do we do things here?

Dagnabbit, Kevin.

Dang tabbit.

Dang tabbit.

How do they— how do they do it around here?

They just weigh you on the way in.

And you're paying for the whole thing?

Yep.

Like your truck and everything?

They weigh the— well, usually they just weigh the trailer.

OK.

But I guess if you're hauling in a truck, they'd weigh the truck. But I've only— yeah, I've always had a flatbed trailer when I've gone to a dump site, and they just weigh you on the way in, and then you pay— It's usually like a flat fee, 'cause I think it's the way they do it here. It's like, over a certain amount you pay this, under a certain amount you pay this.

Interesting.

At least that's up here in Montgomery County. I don't know how it is all across the United States, but—

Or in Canada.

It makes complete sense to me that they would weigh you going in and then weigh you coming out.

Well, yeah. That does make sense. I think that's a fair way to weigh things.

Kevin, you're going way overboard.

I love it.

Yes, I love it. But yeah, I mean, and that, that comes into our pricing. Like, if we have— not, not to steal your little moment of humor here, um, but, uh, but that comes into our pricing because if we have, uh, you know, a trailer full of shingles, that costs us a lot more. Or a trailer— we had a trailer full of railroad ties and that cost an arm and a leg. We definitely did not make money on that job, but we learned, you know, we gotta quote higher for those or put in some sort of Okay, we're gonna give you the bill after the dump, and then you're gonna pay that plus our labor.

Those things are way heavier than they look. Sorry, I'm doing it the whole show.

I can't. I just can't right now.

You can't weigh me down with your scornful looks.

Oh wow! This is this is going way down fast. Okay, so. I think that, uh, the thing, the thing that I'm interested in then is how do you bid out these jobs? I mean, you're, you're, you're getting someone who calls, you know, Joe Messy Person is calling you and needing to clean his junk out of his house or wherever. How do you determine how long it's going to take? Like, I mean, you've obviously been doing the job. But I mean, we're— so we're targeting homeowners right now, right? So as they're listening to this, they're going, look, I need some junk removal, how much is this going to cost? And obviously they need to get someone out there to estimate that. How do you go about estimating

that?

Yeah, so we've got— it depends on the job, obviously. Like, typically, um, we, we get our lead one of two ways. It comes in off the website as a, as a quote request, and we have the ability to attach pictures there, which I'll get to in a second, or it comes in as a call, right? So either way, we're probably going to call them back if it came in as a quote, or we chat with them on the phone, get them to send us some pictures over email or Facebook or text. Um, but because we've done, you know, so many jobs at this point, I think we're averaging like 100— I think we just tabulated, it's like 150 or 200 jobs that we've done since May.

Okay.

Um, and so we, you know, we've gotten to learn, okay, this is, this is what this job is going to take. So we factor in, you know, dump rates, how far it is away, you know, how far we have to travel, our labor rates, because we, you know, we'll have 1 or 2 people that come out with, you know, with the truck depending on the job. Um, and then, you know, how long is this all going to take? What's the, what's the, you know, opportunity cost of going in here and spending 6 hours on this job as opposed to 1 hour, you know, doing a quick pickup? So there's a lot of things that factor into it, but, you know, the distance we have to travel, how long it's going to take, how heavy things are going to be for the dump fee—

those are the main things that we look at, you know, and how much space it's going to take in our trailer, etc.

Yeah, I mean, how often do you get to a place and they're like, oh yeah, I have this whole other room over here that I need to get taken care of as well? Does that happen?

That happens more times than you would think. Someone's like, you know, they have us out for a little job and then they're like— usually it happens between the initial quote and then we get out there and they're like, man, I was just, you know, getting this stuff ready and I realized I had all this other stuff. Can you take this and just throw it in? It's not that much more.

Yeah.

Um, so we tell people, you know, hey, if, if we come out and there's a bunch more, the quote's gonna change. So, so, you know, be aware of that. Um, the other thing is, you know, we've quoted pictures at the beginning of piles of junk And that is, that is usually the hardest thing to quote is, you know, a pile of random junk that's in the grass. You open it up and there's a bunch of shingles underneath or concrete or what have you. So we typically have to go out in person on those and try and dig through a little bit. But yeah, there have been times where people, you know, they want to throw a few things extra on the pile.

Yeah, I, I would imagine that happens pretty commonly because I mean, I also think that a lot of times people don't realize how much junk they actually have. Right? Like, I mean, Craig, you just got through like going through your, your barn here. It was glorious. And it's— and it looks a lot different. But I mean, did you find yourself going, I just cleaned this out, there's more and more and more, you know?

Yeah, my hate grew and grew. It's—

this is a Dr. Seuss book ready to, to be written, isn't it?

That's right.

My hate grew and grew as I went through and through the junk.

All the way to the dump.

Yes.

Guys, we've got a bestseller right here.

Yeah, I think we're on to something. I don't know what. We're on to something.

Well, we, we probably, we probably need to, to, to break and pay the bills here. We do need to. Do you want to go?

Yeah, sure, I'll go ahead. I already kind of mentioned, uh, Sustained Growth Solutions. It is a whole new way for business owners to figure out how to sustain their business and, and grow. Because I know there's a lot of people out there, they want to grow their business, but they're trying to figure out how. Where are they going to get their leads from? And so, um, Sustained Growth kind of takes that all out of their hands and puts in a whole new lead system to generate leads for your business, and it's exclusive to you. So those leads come directly to you each and every month. And so if you're interested as a business owner in getting quality, high-quality,

exclusive leads for your business, here's all you got to do. Send an email to info@sustainedgrowthsolutions.com. You'll be hooked up with someone who can give you some more information. Mention that you found found them on The Homeowner Show, and that will be a great little plug for us. And, uh, so yeah, Sustained Growth Solutions, give them a chance.

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Bada bing, bada boom, done.

Awesome, Lewis, man. What you mentioned those those railroad ties? Have you how big of a stack of those things did you did you pick up?

So Ryan was this was a solar job that Ryan did.

What do you mean?

That's out about noon.

I'm, I'm, I'm sorry, I got to interrupt. What do you mean a solar job?

Solo. So, so sometimes he heads out on the truck solo as opposed to having a helper.

Solo. So he's, he's from the Northeast, right? One of them is solar.

Yeah.

Not solar as in like a sunshiny job.

It's like they're installing solar panels on railroad ties.

I feel like sunshiny job is part of the Dr. Seuss book we're going to write. All right, continue, Lewis.

Yeah, so he did it. He did a solo job. Um, so he headed out, headed out about noon, and we're like, all right, cool, just headed out to do this, this job. Um, you know, this helping this lady out get some railroad ties and some junk and whatnot out of her yard. Uh, there's some scrap there. He was excited about getting that, you know, because we'll, we'll recycle scrap and get a little bit of money back for it. At, uh, at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon— notice I said he went out at noon. Yeah, around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, I was like, how's things going? He's like, man, I underbid this job. This is brutal. Oh, he ended up hauling out 8,000 pounds of

railroad ties by himself.

Wow, that's insane.

Wow. It filled— it almost overfilled the trailer. Uh, and he— and so he lifted them all in. Like, some of them he had to chop up, but I think he got out of there around 8 in the, in the evening. got his workout in for the week. And, and we basically had to go back to, to the client and say, hey, this is way more than we thought. We're hiding here in the, in the grass. You know, we're gonna have to get you to foot some of the bill. You know, we way underbid this. So that was a fun learning experience. That was, that was in our first couple months of running the business. So it kind of changed how we bid the jobs, you know, and we learned from it

and pivoted. But yeah, that was a good, fun, fun job for sure.

I got to tell you, there's— there's— I've never heard like a good railroad tie story that ended well for the person who got involved.

Well, I'll say this. So there's a reason that Craig asked you this question, Lewis.

And, and I want to hear it.

Yeah, there's a reason. I will tell you, they, they burn a long time. A long time.

And Kevin was involved in the I was.

It was, it was a long night.

And I think it was a year ago yesterday.

It was a year ago yesterday. And there's a reason we know that, but it doesn't matter. Um, but, uh, it, um, we needed more drinks. It took a long— we, we left it. It was still going.

Yeah, you— I think, I think you, you had the smart move by hauling them off. We had— I don't know how many of them there were, Kev.

I don't— well, there weren't just railroad ties. There were There were telephone poles as well.

Yes.

Right?

There was a lot less telephone poles than there were railroad ties.

No, there were— I don't know. I bet there were—

There had to have been at least 20 of them.

I was gonna say 20, 25 at least. Yeah.

Yeah. And so we lit it on fire, and I don't think I left the fire until like 3 or 4 in the morning that day.

Couldn't.

I mean, we started like around— 4:00, 5:00 in the afternoon?

Yeah, it was one of those deals where it was like—

And it smoldered for like 2 or 3 days after.

Yeah.

I was gonna say it's probably still burning a little bit now.

I mean, it may be. I know that, um, it was one of those deals where Craig was like, hey, I've got the water hose over here. And I'm like, well, do you have your phone on you, and is it charged where it can call 911? That's what I want to know. Uh, because it was a big fire. It was a big fire. Yeah, it was a hot fire.

We were really hot.

We had to sit a ways away from that fire.

So you're basically burning pure oil at that point. It's like a candle wick.

It is. I mean, it's really what it is.

Yeah. So I mean, I don't know what they season those things with, but creosote. Okay, whatever, whatever he just said. Um, they're, they're soaked A long time.

Creosote is— everyone believes it to be like this magical thing that keeps bugs from eating wood. It's not true.

What does it do? Does it keep— does it encourage it?

No, it, um, it sustains the life of the wood is what it does really, really well.

Okay.

Um, but everyone thinks that it's, it's a chemical, right? And so like, but it's supposed— everyone thinks that creosote keeps termites from eating wood. I I can't tell you the number of times I've seen hollowed-out railroad ties.

What? So here's a question. We're way off topic, so might as well go down this for a moment. What do termites not eat that's wood-related?

Nothing.

That's what I thought. Yeah, so they're— if it's wood, they're gonna eat it, right?

Well, and it's not just wood, it's any cell— uh, cellulose.

Okay.

That's why they'll eat cardboard, paper, books.

So do they— do they enjoy attics then? I mean, just Eating up? Do they ever just eat up attic insulation?

You know, I've never seen them do that. I've seen them eat like the paper side of insulation, but never like because most insulation is not well.

Most of it's fiberglass, but they do have cellulose that's blown in. So yeah, that's an option.

That's a different kind of termite, so that'd be kind of weird. But that's that's a different that's a different show.

Yeah. So Lewis, have you ever carried it off? termite-infested things in the past?

We haven't. So termites aren't— they—

I was gonna say they're probably not as common where he's at.

No, they're really not. The beautiful thing about Canada is that we have winter, so it freezes all those sorts of things and they die. And then spring comes and we can enjoy summer without termites.

What do they call that when the— it's like so many inches of the topsoil freezes? You know what I'm talking about?

Like permafrost?

Yeah. Is that what that is?

I think so, yeah. And it stays frozen year-round kind of thing.

Okay.

Wow, man.

We don't have that here, but yeah, when you get up way north.

Yeah. I mean, you're— I mean, how far are you from the United States border?

So I'm right on the Maine border.

Yeah.

I'm like an hour from Maine. So we're practically, you know, no different than Maine.

Practically no different. So you eat a lot of lobster? Is that why you're here?

There's a lot of lobster. Yeah, a lot of lobster, a lot of seafood, all that good stuff.

Man, this sounds glorious. Absolutely glorious. Except for all the junk. That's not glorious. Obviously Canada has a lot of junk.

Yeah, Canada's the only place with junk, which is why we decided to set up here.

You've not been to Texas. There's a lot of really, really, really old places here in Texas.

Well, my follow-up question to that for Lewis is like, one of the ways that you see it dealt with here in Texas is like every mile and a half there's a storage facility.

Oh yeah.

And they're all climate controlled or, you know, boat storage, junk storage, wine storage. I mean, there's just Everywhere. A plethora of storage facilities everywhere.

Yeah.

Do you guys not have that? Or is, is it just like a different—

We definitely do have that. We actually have done a few storage facility cleanups. So someone's just, you know, stopped paying, and it doesn't go to auction or something. Or they're just moving and they need— we did one moving job for someone where it was basically just move it to this other storage facility. Um, but yeah, storage facility cleanouts, we definitely have them. They're not as common, I would say, you know, and probably more population-dense areas. Up here, you know, there's enough land where— I mean, there's land in Texas too, but there's enough land where it just accumulates on their yards and they don't care enough to call us. Those will probably never be our clients. Their storage facility is just strewn across their yard.

That's so true. I, I mean, So there's a lot of places in Texas. I'm thinking of one place in particular on the way to where we go for Thanksgiving every year, which is Caddo Lake, where you drive by this place. And so we've all seen hoarder homes, right? Like inside a hoarder home. In fact, we actually had a really cool episode on hoarders.

Yeah.

Way, way back. That was like episode—

I think it was like 2 years ago.

Yeah, it was a long time ago. Anyway, really cool episode if you're wanting an episode on hoarding. Um, but this, this, it's a piece of land. I don't know, I don't know how many acres it is, but there's multiple acres. And imagine the inside of a hoarder's house, only it is the entire acreage.

Gross.

I mean, I mean, there's, there's cars, there's appliances, there's wood, there's bicycles, there's, I mean, you name it, and there's junk all over this place. Like, I don't know, it would take you— it would, especially with one trailer, Lewis, you could probably spend a month there. No, not even kidding. And so there's definitely places like that that they don't even know what they have. It's just junk everywhere. It's insane.

Lewis, do you guys do car removals and things like that?

We have. I believe we've gotten, uh, one or two. Um, there's a lot of scrappers around, so, so You know, they're just gonna haul it off. We do advertise for, you know, if someone has a car that needs to be hauled to, you know, one of the areas that scraps it, we will do that. We can fit them in our trailer. So it's something we certainly can do.

Interesting.

And do you guys— I mean, I think you alluded to this earlier— do you guys sort of separate the materials? I mean, like, we, like, we gutted a cabin not too long ago, and like, we pulled all the copper out of the walls because we knew the whole house needed to be rewired. So we just kept all the copper. So we could sell the copper.

Sure.

Do you guys do stuff like that as well?

100%. Yeah. I mean, there's times, like typically, you know, if there's some metal, we'll sort it toward the back of the trailer and then we'll take that back to the shop. Uh, and then when we get enough, we'll just take a whole load in and, uh, you know, recycle it and get paid for that scrap, you know, whatever, whether it's aluminum or steel or copper. Um, yeah, we definitely, I mean, it offsets some of our costs and, and comes in and just makes the job that that much more profitable.

So what is your— I guess what is like your favorite call to get then? I mean, like, you know, like this is, you know, you've obviously built a lead generation site, you found a niche market. And so like, what's your favorite call to kind of have come in and like, yeah, that's exactly what we were looking for?

I think, I mean, the favorite ones are someone says, hey, I've just got this pile of stuff that's out on the street. We can just pop in. Um, and, and take it off. Um, the deck and shed demos, they're a lot of fun, you know, and everyone likes to, to wield the chainsaw or the Sawzall or what have you. Um, they're a lot of fun, they're quick, and, and they're, you know, we charge for them, right? There, it's, it's, there's risk involved, you know, you never quite know how the job will turn out, so not everyone is as, as profitable. Um, but, but those are fun, those are, those are fun jobs. And then the appliance removals, furniture

removals, Um, they're all fairly straightforward.

Yeah. So, um, I, I guess one of my questions is like, when, when you're doing, when you're doing your junk removals, um, how, how often are you, are you kind of going, okay, this is going to, this is going to change how we do this in the future? Like, as you're, as you're learning this, um, Do you feel like you've kind of come across most things at this point, or do you feel like there's still stuff you have to figure out?

I think the biggest thing for us is as we move into bigger demolition jobs, um, you know, we rent equipment currently for, for the ones that, you know, that just are outside of the realm of taking down with a chainsaw and a Sawzall. Um, and then, you know, next year we're looking at, hey, do we buy a digger? Do we form a partnership with someone who can come in and sub with us? Um, those are kind of the ones that it's like, okay, how do we quote this? Do we have the bandwidth to do this? Do we just, you know, put a little bit more on top of the price so that if we get it, you know, we can sub it out? Um, those are— that's probably the learning curve now. The, the standard run-of-the-mill, you know, an appliance

that's— that needs to be removed, or a piano or whatnot, we feel like we've covered most of that and have a pretty good sense of, okay, this is how much is going to fit in the trailer, this is how many loads it's going to be, this is how much You know, manpower is going to be needed, etc. So it's as we stretch into kind of the unknown territory as we grow and get the word out there.

Sure.

Yeah, it definitely seems like the kind of business that you want to grow to where eventually, you know, you have to justify that skid steer.

Yes. I mean, because you never know when you might need a skid steer.

Every Tuesday.

Right, exactly.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's the ultimate ghost whenever you do need it every Tuesday. Yeah, obviously.

Have you, have you guys had to use something like that?

We've used a mini excavator on a fair number of jobs. Okay. You know, whether it be a demolition thing, we did some rock removals for someone, a realtor actually, who just needed some rocks removed from their lake property. So we use that. We're looking at it for a couple of jobs here. But having something on hand, a skid steer would be great, like with a grapple hook, um, you know, something like that. That's going to be in the future for sure.

Yeah, like, one, like, they're so useful. Two, they're just so fun.

Yeah, definitely. All right, next question.

They are a lot of fun.

All right, so as, as a junk removal owner What do you wish that that person that called you understood that they don't know?

I think that's a great question.

Hmm. Cha-ching.

Cha-ching. This is the money question. I think the biggest thing is we can't remove it for $25. Some of the jobs may make the most sense for you to take to the dump for a bigger job. You know, that's where we come in. Our minimum rate of removal is $80. So we won't, we won't even engage with, with someone, you know, if it's less than that, it's just not worth our time. It's not worth the fuel to, to go out there. You know, we've got insurance, we've got, you know, people to pay, etc. And, you know, all of that, right? So I think there's, there's the minimum charge. And then the fact that, you know, if you're 2 hours away, We probably can't help you as much as, you know, your neighbor has referred to

us or your friend has referred us over. You know, it's going to charge. We're going to charge for the fact that it costs us. We, you know, if you want us around here in 5 years, we have to be a business that sustains itself.

Yeah, I think everybody is naturally geared toward how can I get this done the absolute cheapest way I can get it done. And unfortunately, I think for most people, I mean, you definitely You get what you pay for. We've talked about that over and over and over on this show. Whenever we talk to some contractors and they say, look, I'm probably going to be more expensive than the, than the next guy. Um, and there's a, there's a reason for that. Um, I've, I've got a certain standard that I hold myself to. And, uh, but so yeah, it's just not going to be the cheapest day of your life. Sorry, you got a lot of junk. You gotta get it taken away. And, um, you can do it yourself, or we can come out and it's going to cost you some

money, right? Do you think— okay, so let me ask you this. Do you think that there's going to come a point whenever you do have those dumpsters where it's going to wind up making some things more affordable for some people? Or those— I have no idea how much dumpsters cost to, to have them. And Craig, I know y'all just recently had one, but I mean, do you think that's going to change some things?

I think it appeals to the DIY crowd more for sure. You know, they, they don't necessarily want it us to swoop in and save the day. Um, they may be doing a little bit of a longer project, so it definitely— it's definitely going to open up options for us. It's going to open up probably some more subbing for different contractors because they're always needing it for shingles or for different debris needs. We can just leave it there. We can build up those referrals. They can refer us to clients. It just opens up a whole new avenue, a new type of job for us, for sure.

Okay. Yeah, makes sense. Craig, got more questions?

No, but I do, I do have a business idea for you that I think could potentially make a lot of money and make, make all of our families happy.

Okay, so let's hear it.

Because we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to team up on this one.

Okay.

So, Lewis, have you, have you ever been to the Caribbean?

I have, yeah. We honeymooned in St. Lucia.

St. Lucia. Have you ever been to, like, St. John?

I haven't, no.

You haven't? OK. So, St. John is the only national forest in the Caribbean. United States national forest.

OK.

Well, national park.

Sorry.

National park.

OK.

Um, and it is covered in junk. Absolutely covered in junk. Junk everywhere.

Is that just because there's nowhere else to dispose of things?

There's nowhere to go.

OK.

And so, like, the person that could figure out— and like, here's the thing, I think, I think it could actually be like a government contract.

OK.

Because it is a national park and they want to keep those things clean. But like, people, like, their cars break down and they just leave them on the side of the road.

Interesting.

And abandon them.

Sure.

And, and like, and not only that, they have, you know, because they have a lot of hurricanes and stuff like that, when like they tear down buildings, they don't have anywhere to take the trash. Mhm. So they just put it in the lot next to them. That's wild. And so like over the years, I mean, like you, you will literally see the jungle like absorbing cars and, and different things like that.

Sure.

And because the only way to get to the island is by boat, right? Um, And so really you just need like enough government money to invest in a barge and some guys and some crews to get the, you know.

Okay, so what's the— what's the— that's the business strategy is for us to go remove the junk and make Lucia? Yeah, in the afternoons we go find the little pool bar. Is that the way that works?

That's absolutely the way. It pays for all of our rum. And whatever.

Sounds like a money idea.

It does.

Yeah. Yo ho ho.

Yo ho ho!

Yo ho ho!

Oh man, see, there it is. We just needed the name.

Yep. We've— now that we've figured out a name, it's just a matter of Lewis, you've got the expertise. Um, Craig and I have— I don't have anything. Craig has the idea. I got nothing.

I got nothing.

I don't think Ryan will be too upset about headed to the Caribbean either.

There you go. There you go. I mean, at that point, we would be national heroes.

Absolutely.

Yes. And that's what all Canadians want, is to be a US national hero.

You know, you start there, 'cause it's a smaller park.

Oh, OK.

And then you get the contract for all the rest of the parks.

Oh, OK. So, yeah.

Any— all junk removal from national parks.

Wow.

It'd be a nice contract.

It would be. It would be.

Sounds good. Let's draw it up off air after. I'm, I'm down to make it happen.

All right.

Lewis is with me.

Yeah. Hey, I, I know Lewis. He's up for a good idea. He's up for a good idea.

I am.

I am.

All right. So here's, here's the next money question before we get to, uh, the, the thing that everybody waits for. Um, and that is, what have we not talked about in regards to junk removal that you think a homeowner ought to know?

I think you should just save all your junk for us and not ever get rid of it so that we can just keep, keep feeding our families and making the community better.

Yeah. Hey, I'm, I'm all for that. Yeah, let, let you figure out a way for me to stay sustainable. That would be perfect.

Yeah, there's not— there's no— it's, it's a, it's a pretty straightforward business. There's, there's not a— there's not a ton of levels of, of complication. You know, I listened to a few shows that you guys have done, and there's always, you know, some, some hidden thing. The, the, the work that we do, it's fairly straightforward. It solves a problem, um, for a lot of people. They don't have the time, the money, the re— well, they have the money because they're calling us in— the, the time resources or the manpower to make it happen. Um, and a lot of people surprisingly don't know that companies like ours exist.

Yeah.

They kind of, they kind of let it sit. Um, when we, when we ran some Facebook ads as we were getting the brand out there, um, you know, we'd have people reaching out saying, man, I've been waiting for this forever, or connecting with realtors and they're saying, you know, I had clients that could have used you and they hauled it all away themselves kind of thing. So I think, I think the biggest thing is, is maybe some education, certainly in our area, around the fact that Hey, you can get someone in to remove your deck. You can get someone in to, you know, clear out that commercial area that, that you need. Um, we, we did like a dentist basement, a dentist office basement clear out, um, you know, different stuff like that that people just don't know

that they can call someone. They don't really— it doesn't really fit a moving company. It doesn't really fit, um, you know, just calling your friends over for a pizza party. But hey, you know, we're here, we exist, we can help you solve a problem.

I mean, it's, it's a— in my mind, it's a mental health service because I, I, I know that so many people deal with junk at a level where it creates anxiety and overwhelming feelings.

Yeah.

Because they don't know where to start, they don't know how to get going, they don't feel like they have the energy to complete the project, or even, you know, like once they get started, how they're going to finish it. So like, that's what it— that's what it like. And I think a lot of service businesses are like that, where they're, you know, you're providing something where the homeowner is just in over their head, and they, and they don't, they don't, they just don't know what to do or even how to start. And so I like that, you know.

Yeah, well, and I think that, uh, exactly to your point, especially whenever it comes to like, you know, estates that, that, you know, loved one has died or something, and you've got to figure out what to do with this stuff, and I can imagine this being one of those, one of those services where it's like, look, I, I can't, I can't handle this. There's nothing that I really need. I've gone through, I've picked up the valuable things that are valuable to me, at least. I just need someone else to take care of it. So I can, I can see that being a huge, a huge thing for sure.

Um, it's emotionally and physically exhausting, right? I mean, we've got stuff that we've, we've been cleaning up from, uh, From Alyssa's mom. You know, she, she passed away a few years ago. We have a lot of stuff. We've been recently, you know, clearing out some rooms here, and we're taking multiple trips to the, you know, to the consignment stores just to drop it off. And it takes energy, it takes time to set aside. You know, sometimes you just got to have someone to come in and, and, you know, swoop in and take it, you know, as long as you know there's nothing valuable in there.

Yeah.

You know, cutting ties with that emotionally can be the biggest relief for a lot of people.

Yeah, I think that's true. I do want to circle back really quick. You said you were cleaning out a dentist basement. That's when you know your teeth are really bad. When you— it's like, look, you got to go to the basement for this procedure. It's like this downstairs is your— this is the place where you're gonna get fixed.

Is that like juvenile detention dentistry?

Is that it? Yeah, it's like, yeah, this is, this is like Like prison dynasty right here, right?

No Novocaine.

We actually we actually had to sign a waiver on this one, so I can't I can't disclose all the details. But you're close.

Yeah, I'm close.

No, no, it was it was it was a storage area, and they just had a bunch of random stuff stored in there, and they were like, help us.

Oh, that's funny. Well, Craig, hey, you remember that reminds me, didn't we put up a um it was it was a listing. for a home that had a jail in it? Do you remember this? I gotta go back and find it, because there's a listing of a home...

I think I remember what you're talking about.

Like, it was a basement, but this home was, uh, it was for sale, but it was the, um, like, the county...

It was the old city prison or city jail.

It was the city jail. That's what it was. And whoever the sheriff was at the time, or whoever, um, like, That's where they— it was in his house. Yeah, the jail was in his house and he was there all the time. Is, you know, anyway, it's kind of— that's, that's what I have in my mind whenever you talk about the basement of the dentist.

Crazy. There's so many ways that story could go with the jail in the house, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep it, uh, on track here.

Yeah, this is, this is not part of the Dr. Seuss book, I'll tell you that. The Dr. Seuss book is not going to the dentist basement. That was a dark turn. Yeah, it took a dark turn for sure. All right, well, we're going to move on to the part of the show, Lewis, everybody is looking forward to. I don't know if—

Because they haven't heard it in a while, for one.

They hadn't heard it in a while. Um, but I, I don't know if I prepared you for this or not, but if I didn't, well, here we go, because we're about to hit the Final Four.

The Final Four.

Yeah, that's right, the Final Four questions we ask each and every one of our guests. So, Lewis, did you know about this?

I truthfully didn't. Okay, I went through those episodes and I've been following you guys, and I guess I've never made it to the final 4.

Okay, well, here's what happens. We, we, we ask all of our first-time guests these same 4 questions, so it's gonna hit you like a ton of bricks. Here we go. It's— they're tough. You gotta, you gotta win this in order to actually get this episode published. So here we go. All right, first question is What is the must-have tool that you won't leave your house without?

And this is in reference to the business, correct?

Yeah, this is in reference to anything. It could be as simple as like, you know, Craig calls you one day and it's like, hey, come over to my house. And you're like, what for? He's like, I got a ton of stuff to do and you just got to grab one tool. You're running out of your house. It doesn't have to be that. It could be a tool for your business. It could be anything. What's a must-have tool that you personally can't live without?

I cannot live without a watch. I have to have a watch with me everywhere. I feel, I feel naked for one, and I'd have no context as to where my life is going and what's happening if I don't have a handle on the time.

Oh, a handle on the time. That is poetic right there.

We talking pocket?

That is. I didn't even know that.

Digit?

Digital?

Wind-up? What are we talking?

Uh, I have a G-Shock, so it's got digital and analog. I don't know if you can see it here for all the viewers at home there. Yeah, but, uh, yeah, it's a, it's a G-Shock watch and it keeps me on track.

Nice.

Cool.

I, I just sport the iWatch.

I love it.

It's not an iWatch Sport.

Yeah, I've had conversations with people. I am, I am extremely rough on watches, so this is the only one that's, that's maintained itself. I haven't tried a smartwatch, in their defense. I don't know if I will because I like the look of this one.

Yeah.

But yeah, a watch is an important accessory for me.

Interesting.

There we go. Now I'm back on. Yeah, I didn't take the plunge with the iWatch until I found out I could go underwater with it.

Oh yeah.

And they came out with that one. Once they had that, I was sold.

Yeah, I actually dropped mine in the bottom of the Blue Hole in New Mexico, which I think it's like a— I don't remember exactly. I think it's 80 feet deep. I believe it's either 60 or 80 feet deep. It's a constant 61 degrees in this, this little place. And it came off, I dove in, and it came off. A diver had to go down and get it. And it came back up and it was still working.

That's so—

Yeah, I was pretty, pretty pumped about that. So yeah, all right. Question number 2, what is a job you've walked away from? So we actually wrote this question poorly. We wanted to ask the question, what's a project at your house that you've walked away from? You had to call in a contractor, you started it, and then you were like, look, I can't finish this. This is too much for me. But we didn't. We quickly wrote— What's a job you walked away from? Right. And so some people take this as a career you walked away from. Some people take it as like a job that you were working on that you walked away from, but I'll let you take it wherever you want to. Lewis, what's a job you walked away

from?

Oh, there's so many ways to take that now that you opened it up like that. Um, I would say, I mean, there's, there's, there's many. Saying no is a skill that I'm working to perfect. Um, I, I walked away from an engineering career, actually. Okay, that's, that's probably the most, um, blatant one that steps out. Um, I, I went to school you know, have a degree in engineering and quickly realized, you know, I liked interacting with people more and I just had this desire to do more and kind of be more in control of the ship. Notice I didn't say have more time freedom because starting a business is, you know, pretty in-depth. But I kind of got told no at a job. I asked for a raise at a job and got let go 2 days later.

Ouch.

So that was kind of That was kind of the first thing. I ended up, you know, getting another job at an engineering firm, but that, you know, catapulted me into the business world. So walking away from that, you know, much to the, you know, disconcertment of my parents, you know, they're like, what are you doing? You just got this degree and all of that. So that was a big pivot for sure.

Yeah. And I, you know, I would say it's worked out well for you.

But I'm very pleased with it.

Yeah. And because I think it's one of those deals where you took that problem and are like, I'm never going to put myself in a position where someone else is controlling that in my life again. And you took control of that yourself.

It changed the perspective from, oh, you have a career that's great and consistent stream of income for the family, to now it was a much easier sell for my wife to take a little bit more of a risk. with, with the income stream, you know, having seen that it could just go poof in 2 days' time.

Nice. Yeah, no, that makes, makes a lot of sense. So that— I think that's the perfect answer for you, from what I can tell. That's good, good, good. All right, next question: How do you wind down at the end of a long day?

I don't do a whole lot of winding down, if I'm honest. Um, I'll go— I go in sprints. So I do like at the end of my workday, one of the things I've been working on is separating from, you know, business life because it's just go, go, go, go from the minute I step in the office to when I step out and my brain will just keep going. You know, as I, you know, blend back into dad life and whatnot. So I try and take 15 minutes and just empty my brain onto my, onto my, you know, to-do list. But winding down, you know, it'll be about, you know, once Once a week is pretty much the rhythm that I, that I am in, you know, I'll,

reading is, is probably my favorite wind down. You know, I'll read for a couple hours, maybe get a book or two done, but reading consistently, going for a walk, those are, those are probably two of the biggest ones to just, you know, kind of reset and reframe and get some perspective back.

Cool.

What, what are you reading right now?

Well, that's a, that's a great question. I have a lot of unfinished books I'm reading. I just started A Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

Oh, okay. Is that— did you, uh, was that referred to you by, uh, Mr. Peterson?

It—

I mean, it may have been down the line. I didn't get it directly from him, um, but I've seen it kicking around in a few of my circles and I was like, okay, it's time to start reading. I, I started it last night and got like halfway through the book. It's pretty— wow, pretty crazy.

Yeah, and it's, it's, it's a, it's a good one. Uh, I know, I know Jordan Peterson talks about that one a lot. Um, yeah, so, so do you, do you tend to do more psychology or are you just kind of all over the map?

I am more in the vein of, um, you know, psychology, sales, a lot of business and, and development books, um, and then autobiographies. I, I haven't picked up a fiction book for a long time. I'm with you.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, you're, you're on a trajectory right now in your life where knowing all of those things is helping you and the fiction just— I mean, you just said you don't wind down. So that's what fiction really is. It's a wind down, right? It's something that really kind of takes you to another place. It transports you into another realm. And I mean, if you're not the kind of guy that does like to wind down very much, then that makes a lot of sense to me.

Yeah, a wind down for me, like I said, it's It's clearing my head so that I can have more creative ideas and execute on them.

Sure. I like it. All right. Last question. What's one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice you've ever received?

There's a lot of nuggets. I think the one I always go back to is imperfect action beats perfect inaction. I know, Kevin, you've heard me say that many times before.

Yep.

But a lot of the times we just stand in our own way. Now that I really have that entrenched, it's probably, you know, working to systematize it so that after I start, you know, I carry through and finish it. But yeah, just getting started is a huge thing that's helped me take some risks and do some things that I definitely wouldn't have— would not have done otherwise.

Yeah, I've—

you're right.

I've heard you say that on multiple occasions and I've seen that in my own life. I mean, sometimes you gotta fail. in order to succeed. And if you're going to succeed in that moment, then you have to try, right? And so you're right, I think paralyzation—

I heard someone frame it up the other day, Kevin, and he says in his business, they don't talk about, you know, trying things or, you know, failing, failing to learn. They talk about they just experiment. So they're like, all right, let's do this experiment. Let's see. So they just start a bunch of experiments. And it's no longer Oh, that failed, or that, that effort failed, or, you know, I failed in this. It's just like, oh, that experiment came back from the lab and we've got to tweak it. So that's been a cool reframe to say, okay, I'm going to start it and we'll just see where it goes.

I actually love that. I had a— in my career at one point, I had something that I proposed and the answer that I got was, yeah, why don't you just kind of do that covertly? And I was like, why would I do it covertly? Like, shouldn't we tell people that we're doing this? There's no reason to do it covertly. And they're like, well, yeah, but then if it fails and we don't have to walk it back. And I actually said, well, what if we just framed it as an experiment? Because people fail at experiments all the time. And then you can just change something, change the variable a little bit and keep the constant and try again. And If it

fails you, it's just an experiment. So, you know, it, it, and it goes into another, another thing that I really love. Um, I, I love to dog on people about, and that is just analysis paralysis, is getting out of analysis paralysis. Um, and taking some action is huge. Really, really huge. So, all right. Um, well, we, we actually, um, weren't completely truthful with you. There's not just 4 questions. There's a secret 5th question. And Craig gets to ask this question every time because he can't remember the other ones.

I don't have the cheat sheet.

Well, it's okay.

That's true.

What's the fifth question, Lewis?

If people want to get a hold of you, how do they find you?

I am all over the internet. No, there's there's a few avenues. Facebook Facebook is the most commonly commonly used one. You can use Lewis at integrityjunk.ca. Or lewis@bluecrocus.ca. That's the name of our agency. So connect with me on Facebook or by email. Excited to, excited to hear from you. And guys, this is, this has been a fun show the way you guys put it together. I liked the question. I actually liked that I didn't know the questions because I like, you know, having to kind of go with my, go with my gut and the first thing that comes to mind. It's, it, that was good. I appreciated that.

Good. Awesome. Good, good, good.

We'll keep that in mind for future guests.

Yeah.

Surprise all of them.

Yeah.

It's not a bad thing.

For sure.

Well, dude, it has been, it has been a pleasure to have you on. Thank you for taking the time, uh, to, to sit with us and just kind of explore junk removal. Uh, I, I think it's one of those, those things that gets overlooked a lot of times. And, uh, I mean, goodness, here we are 165 episodes in and we've not done one on junk removal.

No, I know.

So it's, it's really, really good. So, um, all of you out there who are listening, uh, we appreciate you very, very much. Thank you for downloading Today's episode. We're here each and every Tuesday. If you have not already, click that button, hit the bell, subscribe to the places, eat the food that we give you, be excellent. Yes, homeownership. Do all the things.

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Just us.

Just us.

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See ya.