Chris Collins Unleashed: Episode 2 - Business with Family or Friends

Welcome to Chris Collins Unleashed.

All you have to do is listen.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Unleashed. How you doing, G Man?

Doing well? Feeling good.

We got a fun subject today that. That was inspired by G Man and his son calling in sick.

Going fun for you with family members and friends. Should you or shouldn't you?

You short.

Shouldn't you?

Should not.

No way.

No, I don't. I. I've had a lot of experience, and none of them been very.

Give me your worst experience on going into business with family members.

Well.

I mean, my wife and I, we almost got divorced over that. So I was running. I was.

Just a subtle. Just subtle.

That was a small problem. My wife had an issue.

We almost killed each other.

So my wife's working for an orthodontist, and she was doing, like, appointments and scheduling and, you know, doing a good job, and he was happy with her, and she was making decent money.

And I was working at the. You know, I was working at the dealership and managing that. And then I had this other business that I had opened, and it wasn't. It was. I was struggling because I wasn't on top of it enough. You know, I was there. Like, I'd go for lunch, I'd drive over there, and I'd be with the people and then check on them, everything. So I said, well, you're over there and you're making. You know, you're working for this guy who's paying you, and you do an amazing job. You know, my wife, she's an amazing person, right? And I thought, why don't you just come work for me and go and help me run our business? And then you could put the same level of attention and passion into that and help me manage this thing. And so we agreed, and we did that, and it was a. It was a. It was abysmal. It was a disaster. There's a lot of things like. Like this list that we got, and it's got a lot of stuff on here.

Affected your sex life.

Everything, man. Everything. I'm looking at the list. I'm going, yep, yep. Had that. Oh, had a little of that. Had a double dose of that one.

It was rough. I mean, it's rough on the marriage. The crazy thing is you don't know where your marriage. You know, where your business stops and your marriage begins. They start to kind of, like, blend. And that gets a little. It gets a little rocky because nobody really knows their role. You know, it was. It was kind of interesting.

Yeah, you don't want to put your wife in that line of fire. No, because when things don't get done and then you're arguing with her about that and.

Yep.

Then it just doesn't work.

There's enough stuff to fight about when you're married. For 25 years of. I've.

What do you fight about after 25 years? You make it sound like prison. Are you married? Are you in prison?

What. What is there to fight about? Your wife is amazing.

Dude, I have the best wife on the planet. There's no doubt.

I'm gonna go on the record right now saying it. Whatever the fight is, believe it's your fault. It's your fault I take our side. I don't even know what it is. Whatever you're fighting about, I take her side.

So. Well.

So in 90 of the situation, what.

Gets me in trouble now is.

Is this podcast.

I reveal too much on the podcast. No, what gets me in trouble now is I. I'll tell her, you know. Well, you should just go blow them up. Like, have you blown them up yet?

In reference to, like, the dry cleaner or what?

Yeah, the dry cleaner, the cable guy.

Gary, shirts are late. Did you blow them up?

You left the stain on my shirt. Did you go down and blow them up?

Honey, I got a system for the dry cleaner. I don't need to blow them up. You gotta be careful saying blow them up around anything.

Yeah, right.

Stuff downtown LA is very touchy.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

This beard. Sometimes I think I look like a terrorist.

You just set your gym bag down on a corner for no reason and everybody runs away. All of a sudden, the police come.

It's funny. Everybody's very sensitive. Yeah. So I think in 90% of the situations, I take your. Your wife's side with that.

Oh, I. I would almost bet nearly 100%.

So let's. Let's kind of tell everybody the. The situation with your son. So it was kind of my idea, right?

Yeah, it was your idea.

So he's. He's off for the summer from college.

Yep.

Great kid. And I said, you know, he's going to college for business.

Yep. Business marketing, as a matter of fact. Yep.

And so I said, well, hey, you know, the stuff he's going to learn at college is the real stuff. Like, let's teach him copywriting. So over the summer, let's pay him and let's teach him he can, you know, help us with some of our sequences and some of our stuff here internally. But, you know, the. The stuff that we know about copywriting, you're not going to. He's not going to learn in college.

Yeah.

And so we'll will teach him.

And so they don't talk about Halbert College.

Very, very. No.

Most they don't.

It's funny. Like these copywriters from big ad agencies and stuff never heard of Halbert. Like it's crazy.

So then my deal with him was that he would go to the gym with us in the morning. So we have this tradition where we meet at 5:30 and we walk to the gym, we work out for an hour and some days we do cardio, some days we lift. And then I sat on the walk, on the walk back. Like we can review what you learned from the day before. And you know, because once the day gets going, it's kind of hard to sit and give him the attention.

Yeah.

And you know, we can hang out and talk and so.

So we got him a gym membership.

Yep.

And then the first week, all of a sudden he wasn't there on a Monday.

Yeah. You missed a day.

And I'm like, where's, where's, where's Junior? It's Monday. I'm like, I know, but where's Junior? Well, it's Monday. I'm like, I don't know what that means. If you would have said it's Sunday, I know what that means. I know Sunday is usually we're not working on a Sunday, although we do sometimes. But. So that was funny.

That was funny. Yeah. Now I didn't want to out him, but he said, you know, hey, I don't have anything to talk to Chris about. I don't think he's expecting me to come. And I go, okay, all right, I'll see you later.

And I went to the gym.

And now you're caught in the middle.

And then I'm caught in the middle.

Which is which from that then you said, terrible, I'm no longer in the middle. Just you text Chris directly, said, I'm out, I'm out of the middle. Which is better, actually.

Oh yeah.

Because.

Yeah. It's hard with family. Right.

Yep.

Although I will, I will say this, as controversial as this might be to some people is I think that with family or just with employees is the, you know, the problem most of the time is lack of vision and clarity and you know, being clear with people what the expectations.

Yeah.

And so you're less likely like you with your son. You're less likely to dig into him because you're digging into him about other stuff.

Right.

You're more worried about college and like all that. So you're you're not as likely to dig in about a part time job. Yeah, right.

It's hard for me and I think I'm, I'm probably the worst at that because I don't, I'm a little too easy on them. You know, they, I mean, we're just talking about my wife. They, they have their challenges, you know, and she definitely holds them to task. And so I have a tendency to be.

I didn't get a text from her about him calling in sick.

Oh, man, she's all over.

No, no, she ain't gonna text you, but she's blowing him.

Ms. G Man has not reached out to me today.

She won't blow up the dry cleaner, but she'll blow myself. She's got no problem blowing my son up. Poor kid.

So funny.

Yeah, yeah. So she has. So he. So I think I have a tendency to be a little easier on them and I kind of go, you know, I'm the good cop to her, bad cop. In a lot of cases, we'll switch roles every now and then, but that's usually how it goes. And so I'm going to.

Easy. You know, my biggest disappointment with him calling in sick is, is I had him convinced to do these bits for the new podcast on jobs. Millennials want to be replaced by robots, which I think is drop dead hilarious. But today was the day to record him and he's not here. But I thought that was. It would have been hilarious. So everybody listening. You're not going to get jobs that millennials want replaced by robots. Because in the news, everything's like, oh, your jobs are getting replaced by robots. And I have the feeling most millennials are sitting out there going, thank God they're gonna get a robot to do.

Right? Yeah, I don't want to do that. I'm not doing that.

Let me tell you the jobs that aren't gonna get replaced by robots. Picking oranges.

Right.

Picking grapes. You know, there's plenty of stuff they, they don't, you know, that nobody wants to do that isn't gonna get replaced by robot.

Yeah.

Human. But I thought that would have been funny.

Oh, it's been great.

I apologize to everybody listening. You're not gonna get that.

So example number two.

It's a millennial's fault.

Why I'm.

He wants that. To be replaced by a robot.

Yeah, he wants. Coming to work.

Coming to work.

Going to the robot.

Oh, man.

What were you going to say? Because we're going to take a break.

I was going to say that's example Number two, Number one was the story about my wife, which is why I'm contrary. I don't. I don't think it's a bad idea. And then now I got my son, who's now got to worry about him. It's just. It's just too much. I don't. I don't like it. I don't need it.

Okay, when. When we come back from the break, I'm going to give you a business that you're going to change your mind and you're going to say no. Yeah, you need family in that business. So I think it can depend. No, I guarantee.

No.

Guaranteed.

We'll see it.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back, everybody. We are talking about going into business with family members and friends. GMAN is a hard. No. I believe that there are certain situations where, although, you know, I was in business with my. With one of my brothers and that didn't work out, but.

I don't know, I have.

I have dreams of grandeur, probably that. That in certain situations could work, but I don't know. It's harder. It's definitely hard.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

I have to share your expectations, which. That's a tough thing because your. Your expectations are pretty high.

I was gonna say sharing my expectations was not the gap. I shared my expectations.

Yeah.

Getting somebody to believe.

Well, that's what I'm saying, that it's possible. Yeah.

This is the work.

Yeah. They have to share. Everybody thinks.

Everybody thinks really small.

You shared it with him. He did not share it with himself. He did not.

It's the unknown, you know?

Yeah.

He's got to see sometimes. You got to see it to believe it a little bit.

Right, right, right.

Okay. I got a business. I got a couple, actually.

By the way, your brothers do not represent you, just FYI. What do you mean? I just knew that right out of the gate the minute I met him. I was like, wow, that's Chris's brother.

They're just like me, though.

They. They look like you, but they're not just like you.

Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, we're different, but, yeah, they.

I could see it right out of the gate. I'm just saying. I don't know. It was a long time ago, but I just. I could see it was a mismatch.

Yeah. It's interesting. It's interesting to think about. I mean, they. They've had a different upbringing. You know, it's different. It's. It's funny. You know, their take. Their take on me was that all I cared about was money.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Which was odd to me because not too many people come away with that. I don't know. It was interesting and I. I think just because of the upbringing and, you know, we were saying this in the last podcast, but a key to running a good business is talking about the numbers and having goals for the numbers. And so that could give somebody the impression that that's all you care about. But you can't run.

If you're not looking at the numbers. Doesn't mean that's all there is, but it is the clear indicator of what your results are and that what you.

Focus on and measure and you know, and tweak and twist and improve upon that. That's going to get better. So if it's not numbers, what is it?

I wish we had a drum roll right here, Lucas. Okay. Are you ready for the. I'm going to give you one, and then I'll kind of give you an example of another where I think business really, really benefits from family members. Because what's. What's the biggest upside of having family involved in a business?

They know you.

I don't think that's it. But. Okay. What if you are going to start a mafia or a cartel? What if you want to be a drug underlord?

Yeah.

Who else are you going to trust but family?

Yeah.

Who's. Some family usually won't roll on you.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

So funny. We're doing a thing on business.

Like, that's like, everybody listening wants to go start a cartel.

That's a business enterprise. Right. But.

But a legal one, I think. I mean, there's a lot to be learned from. From those types of businesses, like the cartel, because they. They have to innovate and, you know, they'll figure out a way. But so then, like, if you have car washes. Right. What's your biggest. The thing that I've seen with car washes is the biggest issue is cash.

Yeah.

So, yeah. You want to have family members up front or somebody you can really trust. Because I don't know how many car washes. When I've talked to car wash owners about their books, there's a 25 shrinkage.

Oh, yeah. In.

In that, you know.

Yep.

And so car washes are ones with cash, but anything with cash, parking lots, things like that are hard.

Yeah. I mean, that. That's a tough machine. Oh, vending machines.

Brutal. Yeah, brutal.

So I had vending machines for a while, and, man, it was so hard to control the cash, like the margin.

You can't have anybody else picking up the cash that you don't.

Yeah. So I ended up having to do it, which is a complete waste of time. Money you make out of those stupid things. But they. The. Yeah. So you would predict the margin you'd buy the bars. You knew what you were selling them for, and you're like, okay, I should make this amount of money. And then it would come out short. And you're like, I can't figure out what's going on. You realize somebody's stealing the cash out of the machine. Yeah, I guess they go and collect. They're just like a couple in it for me. And then the Rest for you. And they justify it somehow. But it's. Yeah, that's. That's a tough one. The cash is tough. Yeah. If I had my wife or kids doing the rounds at the vending machine, we'd be fine. Yeah, it would have been okay. I would have kept that business.

I think sometimes bars are that way, too. You need somebody that you can really trust watching the cash register. People over, poor, free drinks, cashier. You know, the cash goes in the tip jar, not on the cash register. So, I mean, we're. It gets easier and easier because people more and more just pay with cards. They don't carry cash. But that I've definitely seen that not having that person that you can trust.

In that spot, a lot of shrinkage.

So I have a really good solution for that.

And it goes to my position of not engaging in business with family is that you just don't go into those businesses. You just do something else. Then I can avoid the cash lost, and I don't have to work with my family, and everything's good. Everybody's happy.

Yeah, that's my. Fix it.

That's great, Gary.

I was thinking about going into business with my fiance.

If my wife and kids listen to this, they're think I hate them. I love you guys, by the way.

Just.

Just so you know, I want to go to Disneyland. I just don't want to work with you.

When did you ever say anything different? Your wife's difficult. You can't go into business with her. Your son calls in sick.

Oh, man.

Now we're not gonna have jobs. Millennials would get would like replacement robots. It's a disaster, bro. So some of the cons we have on our list here. These. This is funny. Firing a family member can ignite a world war. That's very true.

Yes.

Can you imagine if you had to fire your wife?

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

No, I could not do it. There's no way. There's just no way.

Marriage is about safety, security, togetherness, and feels like the opposite of entrepreneurial endeavors, which is kind of what you're saying.

There's one in here that says you have.

A role conflict. Right. Are you my boss? Are you my wife? So that's one of the things that we ran into. There was this real juxtaposition because my wife runs the house. Like, when you're in that.

Which is a business.

Yeah. That's her deal. Like, that's her domain. I don't question any of that. And I run the business. And so, like, there was a Weird role swap that was uncomfortable for her, and it created a lot of conflict for us.

Listen to this fun little fact. According to psychologists, couples who work together experience an overload and interference. Overload means couples have insufficient time and energy to perform both as a family and business owner. Interference means since work and family activities occur at the same time, when does work and family begin, Y or end, however you want to say it? That's how it felt.

That's rough. Oh, and I had my daughter working in that business, too, for a little while.

Oh, you could never fire Maddie. Oh, no.

Maddie did an amazing. She could get.

Oh, sure she did. She was always late and called in sick, but she was the best. The apple of her daddy's eye.

Yeah.

Yeah. What? What, because she sold so much or what?

She. No, she was a preschool teacher, and so she would go out and service the accounts, and she. She did a great job.

But the expectations were just good.

Yeah, the expectations. When hasn't she done a good job? Let's talk about that. She was perfect. She's perfect.

Poor Blakey. She. She keeps the. She keeps saying she's the favorite child. In fact, she put a sticky note on my TV last night. Sit with their pictures on your TV in the house.

I'm the favorite child. Yep. Just like. Like my bulldog, Tequila, when he pisses on all the trees around here. Like mine, mine. She's like, look, Blake, I just want to rub it in more.

Oh, man.

And by the way, you're going to call in sick tomorrow.

It's funny.

Just kick him when he's down. He's down on the ground. He's going to give him a little quick. A little quick kick.

That's so funny.

Oh, man.

I'm sorry.

Family.

That's good stuff. So how did you. How did you. When we come back. Let's take a break and then we come back. I'm dying to know how you resolved it with your wife. And wrap that up nice and neatly because it seems like you guys get along pretty good now.

From outside appearances. So let's talk about that when we come back. We'll be right back.

1872. And Ulysses S. Grant is the 18th president of the United States of America. Grant, as commanding general from 1864-69, had been working with then President Abraham Lincoln to lead the Union army to victory over the Confederacy in the American Civil War. Grant also led the effort to remove the dwindling components of Confederate nationalism and slavery, support economic prosperity, and also protect African American citizenship. Good guy, right? However, in Grant's second term, he was criticized for tolerating corruption and for the eventual economic depression. But the key to this segment and relating it to family and business is during his time in office, Grant appointed and employed over 40 of his relatives. According to Rose Cannon in Lisverse, even after many of them were proven to be corrupt and abusing their power, Grant either gave them a presidential pardon for their crimes or just allowed them to stay in office. She goes on to point out that one brother in law had stolen from the New Orleans custom office and was reappointed by Grant as the collector of customs, while another brother in law worked at the White House and frequently sold insider information without ever being punished. So other presidents that have done this kind of practice, the Bushes, the Kennedys, employing family members, fairly common. Right. So what we're talking about in terms of the business practice is this fairly taboo term, and that is nepotism. So how is nepotism defined? It's usually defined as the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs. It's kind of referred to as favoritism, preferential treatment. You know, that old boy kind of network, looking after one's own bias.