From $0 to $300M in 19 Years: Reed Nyffeler's Franchise Model That Defies Industry Norms

I didn't want to live a default life anymore. The default life is just waking up and making the best decision and the information you have in front of you. I wanted to define my life, and I saw that as a direction.

Welcome to Big Hitters. I'm Larry Weidel, and this show is for people who are done playing small. Each week we break down what it actually takes to win at a high level, the decisions, the discipline, the adjustments that separate those who almost do it from those who do it. No theory, no fluff, just straight talk from someone who spent 50 years building winners. If you're serious about momentum, you're in the right place. Let's get into it. Hello everyone, we're gonna have some fun now. We're talking to Reed Niffler. Hello, Reed.

Hello, Larry, how are you?

I'm excited to, uh, dig into your world and, uh, Hopefully we won't get the security people messing with us here. We'll be public channels only here. What a thing you did. You founded— where are you today?

At Omaha, Nebraska, our company headquarters.

Okay, fantastic. You founded— let's just talk, jump right into this and then we'll go in all kinds of directions. But let's get the big thing on the table. You founded Signal. And the communication app that whenever there's problems with the government on their internal things, that's—

It's actually Signal Security. We're a Signal franchisor, believe it or not. There is, commonly confused with the Signal app, we're actually the Signal physical security organization in 48 states and 9 countries.

Okay, I'm glad we got that cleared now. So go ahead and keep clarifying that.

Yeah, so we are a franchisor. Um, and you know, the industry's about a $250 billion industry. It's really a hidden industry. In fact, uh, the 5th largest employer in the world is a security company, believe it or not. And, uh, it's something we rely upon everywhere we go. And so, you know, 19 years ago I, uh, created this franchise organization to serve that industry. And it was largely police and military, uh, that are former police, military here in the United States that were leaving their, 20-year career in their early 40s that were stepping into this franchise to go serve their communities in lieu of their country, right? They had served their country, so now they wanted to go back to where they want to live. And so, uh, we created a business model that is leveraging technology and, uh, creating efficiency. And there we're, like I said, in 48 states, 9 countries. I just was in Europe last week to really, you know, redeploy our software and solution over there, uh, in many first world countries over there. So, uh, huge growth opportunity and excited to where our organization is headed.

Are you saying there might be a growth in the crime side of life?

For sure. Yeah. As you look around, I think, you know, security is really trust-based, right? And so inherently we don't— we have more information than we've ever had before with cameras and social media, etc. And so we have more reasons to distrust other parties and you want to find a solution from that. And of course, there's always wars that are going on and disagreements that are going on, and that creates levels of threat. And so private security is a solution as opposed to public service, which is difficult for all these police officers and military to cover the the world. And so, uh, that's what our franchisees and their teams do.

So if Prince Harry decides he wants to get more protection, he's likely to call the local, uh, uh, Signal?

Yeah, potentially here in the United States at least, right? I don't know the extent of their ability to come here and protect their, their prince.

He's got to get his own. He's got to pay for his own. The king, the king has made that very clear.

Yeah, well, you know, and we, uh, I think have some experienced franchise owners that would be interested in doing so at the appropriate rate, so Tell me about, about this whole concept.

And you go in this, what's your background? You know, what was your background that caused you to see an opportunity here?

Yeah, I would say I would define myself as an entrepreneur and/or problem solver, right? And so I look at industries that are, you know, have been commoditized and really need to be reinvented. And I think if you look throughout history of time, and a simple example of that is, you know, the retail industry was reinvented by Amazon as an example, right? I always use this analogy that Sears catalog is the photos and you order it and come to your house. And then all he did is put it online and it was a commoditized industry. And so we're doing the same. And I look around to industries that said, okay, where are there opportunities to give the customer better service leveraging technology and local ownership? You know, I really like the franchise world because it employs and empowers an owner, right? We're going to more likely work diligently for ourselves than for somebody else, right? We're building equity. And so that's franchise ownership. And so Franchising is essentially a simplification of a business model that allows, you know, quicker path to profitability with limited mistakes. And, uh, and so then, uh, once I had understood franchising in my previous background, it was now finding an industry that needed to be reinvented that hadn't been done so before that could benefit from franchise owners and technology. And I clearly saw that in security as a need that will never go away, as you kind of alluded to earlier. And so, uh, so then it was just a matter of building that. So I didn't have background in security, but I did, uh, know that franchising direction I want, and I chose security because of the recurring monthly revenue, which is critical for any business. That's where you build value over time, and security lends itself to that for sure.

When you say the word commoditization there, how did that— when did that get on your radar? What does that mean to you?

Yeah, so essentially, you know, every labor service, right? So, you know, the security services was billed at an hourly rate, and if there's no difference between the provider of one service versus another, that's commoditized. So they just go to the lowest cost. That's the only difference they see.

Right.

And so in our case, considering we have a lot of police and military and former security professionals, they're trained by the federal government for 20 years to protect our country. And so there's clearly a difference in the way they deploy security, number one. Number two is the security model was completely inefficient. There was no technology, right? I think the best analogy is looking how the taxicab industry was, was managed before Uber. And so you can see that with the taxicab industry before is similar to what the security industry is doing. You're waiting around for something to happen. And you're paying for all that unused time as a taxi cab, and then somebody waves their hand and you gotta give 'em a ride. Uber is saying somebody needs something now, and then as soon as you're done with that, somebody needs it afterwards, and the algorithm picks up and eliminates inefficiency in time. And that's what our software does with technology. We're, we're leveraging the time to protect someone when they're in need and not waiting around in between going to the next person when they're in need. And so that's revolutionary. It saves the customer money, it generates a larger profit for the franchise owner, and that's the approach we've taken that's different to break it from commodity specialized services.

Clarify and differentiate. This is not where you're getting, uh, a Ring security system for your house, correct?

This is somebody physically there, right? And so a Ring camera would alert the need, right? So that goes back to the point. So if you see on your Ring camera, for example, that a thief is out front, now you know. You didn't have a Ring camera before, you didn't even know, but now you know. Who are you going to send? You're going to send your significant other that maybe is not equipped or prepared to do that, or The police aren't going to come in a timely fashion necessarily. They got other endeavors and they don't know that it is a crime in progress because it only ran through your front yard or something. So then you send security, right? But largely we're focused on commercial clients. So apartment complexes, retail outlets, you know, a series of venues. We have thousands, you know, tens of thousands of clients actually across the globe, all different venues, you know, even down to food defense, right? I mean, there's people that do not want your food contaminated. They need security to make sure the people that are coming into that facility are appropriate and visitors that should be there and they're not contaminating even food. So There's so many areas you don't think about with regard to security beyond the consumer that are even more prevalent. And that's who we serve.

Are you picking up schools and churches and things like that?

Of course. Yep. We have schools, we have churches, anywhere you live, work, and play. Right. I mean, and really think about it this way, Larry, where don't you want to feel peace of mind? Right. You know, if you, you know, whether you're at work, you want to make sure nobody breaks in the building. If you're eating at a restaurant, you want to make sure that nobody is They're crazy, wreaking havoc. If you're, you know, simple as going to convenience store, there's vagrants at that convenience store. How often are you going to walk inside and buy a very high margin item for them? And so we remove those vagrants. And of course, if you're paying any attention to the news, you see that it's only getting worse in America and the police are underfunded already and short-staffed. So it's a matter of protecting your private property, a commercial business or individual home, predominantly commercial businesses, from any concern that would otherwise impede them from doing business.

Well, I think you've got a real growth opportunity with the— for unfortunately for a long time with the— it's going to take a long time to reverse. You know, we've got a big budget for the defense or Department of War now, but the defense budget. But I don't think, you know, I don't think the boomerang has hit to where the funding of the local police communities nationwide is become the imperative that it needs to be to kind of turn around and get the funding up to where they can get the number of people, officers, equipment to really do. So there's going to be— I think we're looking forward to quite a period of time where there's going to be large gaps and where you have a problem and you call somebody and somebody actually shows up. And so great opportunity for you.

Yeah. And many private industry businesses were built because the public could not the public service could not be scaled. I mean, you think of UPS, right? I mean, go to U.S. Postal Service and their price to deliver a package is typically about 1/10, give or take, of the UPS. But UPS is more prevalently used. Why? Because people want that customized service delivered to their home in a timely fashion that the public cannot do. And so that private service that we're delivering to those properties are revolutionary, right? I mean, and quite frankly, we can direct activity. The public will serve the public equally. We'll serve the private specifically. Right. And so if there's a vagrant in a city, they're just going to make sure they're staying on the public streets. We're going to make sure they're not on your property. Right. I mean, that's the difference that our clients are looking for, for any of those issues that are happening. And so I think you'll always see a need for private service, even if there's a large public service budget.

How old were you when you started Signal?

I was 30 years old when I started, actually old enough to know what to do, young enough yet to do it, is what I always tell people.

Yeah. Now, what did you do before Signal to put you in a position to start something that actually worked?

Yeah. So I think I was always a curious learner. So right out of college, I went to work for a— for Black Decker, and they were launching the DeWalt power tools at the time. And so I saw the power of branding, right? That was in the '90s. And as I had quick success there, I was recruited to— by our— the president who went and left to become the chief operations officer at Amazon. And, and that was in the late '90s. And so I went to work for a tech company that was kind of ancillary to that. That was the beginning of a QR code, right? And this is, you know, okay, before the dot-com bubble burst. And I saw the power of technology in business and I knew it was going to revolutionize industry. And so they had moved on to another organization after the tech bubble burst. And I went to learn franchising through a Christmas light manufacturer, sold 285 franchises across the United States, deployed our technology by taking a picture of a home and then editing Christmas lights onto it. You could see the visualization of a service. And so all of those things I saw that, hey, I don't want a seasonal business, which was Christmas lighting. I don't want a tech business that's not specified, which was the QR code. Really, where is that economics there? And I understood the power of branding. So all those things really built into say, okay, I'm going to build a brand, I'm going to leverage franchising, I'm going to do it in a non-seasonal natured business, which is security, and I'm going to identify a technology improvement that would streamline services for all parties.. And so that ultimately led to the start of that business, uh, looking for the industries and, and then, uh, started in here in Omaha, you know, the, a local partner initially that, that I came alongside and, and he was a police officer working off duty. He went from about $300,000 a year to $2.3 million, and now we're well over $300 million in annualized revenue globally.

And so, and so that's where you grew, you grew up in, uh, Nebraska.

Yep. Uh, uh, born and raised here, moved away a couple of stops with Black Decker, but, uh, largely been here my entire life.

Okay, let's go before 20. You— because once you're 20, you— it seems like you hit Black Decker like a freight train. You know, you had your focus, you had your energy. Where did that come from?

Yeah, I think, you know, I remember a kind of a key turning point in my life when I was in junior high and I recognized, you know what, I could try to be like everybody else or be myself. Right. And so I said, okay, if I'm going to be myself—

but what triggered that turning point? What was her name? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I think actually it was really just kind of a revelation in that moment saying, Am I living to appease everyone around me, or am I living to define my future going forward? And I think those are kind of the elements of the book, is I didn't want to live a default life anymore, right? The default life is just waking up and making the best decision and the information you have in front of you. I wanted to define my life, and I saw that as a direction. And I know you're all about winning, and so it's like, what does a win look like for me in my life? And so that was clear. And then I recognized, okay, what's going to help me do that and what's not? And so I really focused on learning towards that direction instead of learning for the sake of memorization or answering a question on a test. And then I'm a big believer that information without application is useless. So why memorize useless information, right? Like whatever you see in the social media or the news of the day. I wanted to see things that I could apply in my life because we all have a retention capacity. And so, uh, I began to really become a voracious learner. And so then I early committed to myself that I would never make a decision I didn't understand. And so that forces you to learn things so you can make a decision well-informed.

If we could just take these things that you've just said, I'm just wishing somebody will hear this and go in there. If you could just get those kids in school to have that lightbulb moment especially in the traumatized middle school years, to go in there and say, have the light bulb go, "Brrp, I'm not gonna live a default life. I'm not gonna follow, I'm not gonna just learn to learn. I'm gonna have some purpose and direction." Read. Man, can you imagine what our country would be like if, let's just say, 1 or 2 or 3 kids in every school had that light bulb, the Blue Light Special go on, Boom. Somebody needs to write a book or something for kids to get this to go up.

Transform Through Purpose. I think I'm on the same track with you there, Larry, because, you know, how do we give that path? And that's really why I'm doing this, right, is to set up the next generation. I sit here and look fewer, you know, going forward. In fact, I put a site together, nextinleadership.com, and that is really saying, hey, these 20-year-olds, what are they going to do, right? Where's the economy going to be? If I don't invest in the next generation, you don't invest in the next generation, for these people that have gotten out of that default life mindset to go forward. And it's transformed through purpose, right? We're all created on purpose for a purpose, each and every one of us. And so that first one is How to Lead Yourself Well. And then I have a second book, it's Lead Exponentially, and that's how to lead others well. Because once we're able to lead ourselves well, then the next natural step is to lead others well. And how do we structure that? Because it is different than making a decision for ourselves. And then there's, in fact, a third book I'm releasing in the summer of '26, and it's Brand new, and that's leading organizations, right? And so once you're leading beyond leading others, now you're leading an organization. There's so many people to opine to, and we have to clarify that. And each of those are just practical structural things to consider as you're making these decisions. Instead of doing it as a default, you now define it. Those books help you define your life as an individual, how to define your leadership role leading others, and then ultimately how to define your organizational leadership structure for scalability and sustainability.

We need to especially get that first book, make sure it's written for a 12-year-old mind, and get a, you know, make sure the title is, is, is one that would connect with the, uh, you know, somehow brand it and market it to that, those kids. But I mean, just, just a little of that throughout our educational system would, uh, revolutionize things, you know. And so I'm happy for you. This is fantastic.

So Yeah, I think some of it has to come down to the hunger of the children too, right? And I think that's the key defining thing that happened in my, you know, junior high years is that was a desire in me. I didn't have a roadmap, right? I think of course the roadmap is important, but I think I would challenge your audience and whomever's listening to say, what's your desire? Is your desire to live a default life that the algorithm on your social media, uh, uh, will define for you the rest of your life? Or is it to define your future today?. And you have that choice. And if you don't choose to define your life, you're by default living the default life. That's the inherent piece. And so it starts with a drive because the roadmap is worthless if you don't intend to employ it. And I think even if we gave that book to so many individuals, they want to live that default life. It's too strong. It pulls 'em down in that hole and they have to decide to step out of that. And that's a choice that every individual needs to and should make for themselves.

Yeah, everybody's enemy is mediocrity. And, you know, the thing is that you have to— that's why I'll go ahead and say this is why I enjoy doing this podcast is because one of the big reasons is to encourage people like you. Been doing this 50 years, Reed, and, you know, tens of thousands of people and I would say hundreds of million-dollar earners, you know, that have come through. But let's just say a lot. All over North America. And I know people can change. And I know the impact of these people once they go through the process, they learn. People need to see more successful people. You know, we need louder voices from the people that know how to win. And it's funny when you bring up the idea, the concept of winning, where people say, what do you mean by winning? You know, it's like, what do you want to do? Let's make that happen. That's a win. You know, if it's, you know, if it's a small goal, medium goal, what do you want to do before lunch? Let's, let's Let's get on a track that turns you on and get some of those ideas in your mind and start bringing them and making them real, you know?

Yeah, I think sometimes winning starts with not being afraid to lose, right? I was never afraid to lose. Therefore, that was the first step to winning. And I think people are not going to try to win because they're afraid of losing. And so if there's people out there right now, I think they're too afraid of losing. And then really, as I sat back and I remember throughout junior high and high school, I was just contemplating the thing is, what am I afraid of losing? The appreciation of others? Well, I never had that anyway. That's a big misnomer, and that's circumstantial, right? I mean, I think as a leader, I think we get so fixated on, oh, my friends won't like me, or the social media won't like me if I win, so I'm going to just sit here and leave a default life and lose, right? And I think I wasn't afraid of losing something that I never really truly had. I think it's a big misnomer that we believe people are rooting for us because they're rooting for us circumstantially., right? I mean, think about someone that just wins the championship within a matter of days or weeks are saying, are you gonna win it next year? I mean, they're no longer rooting for your championship.

You just won it.

You're like, wait, we haven't even had the parade yet. And now you're asking to win again. And every single person, I study leaders and winners just as I'm sure you do. And none of them said, you know what? I was the first one to quit at practice when the coach asked to go another round. And in fact, I threw an interception, I just quit the team. And that's why I'm your Super Bowl champion this year. None of them, they weren't afraid of losing.

They said, you know what? I threw an interception.

I learned how to not throw it the next time, right? Or I was— I didn't make the team, so I doubled down and tried harder. So many people are afraid to lose, and then the first decision they make is, how and when can I quit? Instead of what can I do to change what I'm doing in order to win? And that's a key driver of success. And so I think those who are out there right now, don't be afraid of losing. That's the first thing I'd tell them.

You kind of prompted me to realize, you know, it's like the way winners look. I haven't heard this discussed a lot, but I thought of it while you were talking. It's like the way a winner looks at losing. It's not like, oh, life is over, jump off the bridge, commit suicide. A winner looks at it like, God, I almost pulled it off. You know what I'm saying? You know, like, you know, it's like I almost got it.

You know, it's like 30 more seconds. I would have made that. Yeah, I almost made it. Yeah, right.

Like, let's go. In other words, let's go again. You know, that's the way to go. The winner looks at it completely different, whereas the other person is like, oh, poor pitiful me, life is against me.

But yeah, but said another way, I think, you know, as we are victimized, but whatever our excuses, right? So if we're blaming the referees, if we're blaming the weather, or if I would have said, if I would have practiced harder, I can control that. If I would have studied more, if I would have been more prepared, those are all things within our control. If we focus on the weather, the economy, the referees, the whatever the external items are, we can't control that. Now, how we're victimized by that, right? And so I choose to understand what things I can control. I can do further research, I can study, I can put more energy, right? I think if I'm sitting here in front of you with a success because I was the last one to quit, and I can assure you that is clearly the key universal driver is I didn't quit, not because it wasn't— and again, there are certain things we should quit. I'm not saying don't quit anything. I'm saying if you know that that is your purpose, don't quit If you've chosen to define your life, run towards it and don't give up and go and win. And there's going to be hurdles, right? And quite frankly, they're going to come from unlikely locations, and that shouldn't defeat you. That should embolden you, right? I love getting a challenge because I'm so much better being challenged than being coddled, right? The world coddles you, and yet I was never better because I was coddled, but I'm usually better because I was challenged. And so I set up places where I'm challenged, and as a result, I'm better. And the organization in the world better.

I'm going to say something here to get your reaction to it, but I've noticed with people, let's just say this. Here's the situation. Something happens and, you know, you try and do something and then you meet resistance or you fail. You know, it's like, what? Which way do you, you know, teeter-totter go? Do you start saying, oh, you know, we can't be— can't happen. This is, you know, they don't do it that way. No one's ever done it before, or I'm not good enough, or do you immediately go to can't? Or do you immediately go to, I know where I can get the answer to that. I know where I can get more resources. I know how I could get more power next time. And, you know, you start leaning towards how we're going to solve it versus, oh, this just can't be done. You know, it's like, what is your first reaction? And I want to challenge everybody right now. It's like not only yourself as you're listening to this, folks, but The people around you, you cannot be surrounded by people that their first reaction, you're never gonna do anything if you surround yourself, you let yourself be influenced by people that when the first time any toughness comes, they go, "Oh, you can't do it, no, no, no, no, no, no." Because once you go into that negative mode, what happens is your mind immediately fills up with all the things against it, why it can't happen. But if you go and you say, Well, how can we figure this out? Immediately your mind goes into that mode. And, you know, so I'm not really questioning the people who are taking the trouble to listen to this, but I would say look at the people around you. You got to have people that are going to support you and are going to lean the way you lean when things go wrong. By the way, if you're still listening right now, you're different. You don't just consume content. You're actively looking for an edge. And that's who I built the Big Hitter community for. Not people chasing motivation, people chasing momentum. Not theory, proximity. Proximity to operators who are actually in the arena making real decisions and winning at a high level. Inside Big Hitter, you get conversations we don't have in the podcast, direct access to people who build what you're trying to build in a room that holds you to a higher standard every single week. This isn't a hype group. It's not networking for the sake of networking. It's where serious people go to sharpen their thinking and compress their timeline. If you're done just listening and you're ready to be in the room where it actually happens, head to joinbighitters.com or click the link in the show notes. The right room changes everything. I'll see you inside.

Yeah, I think to say it another way is be with people that celebrate your success, not feel better when you fail. —right? I mean, the negative people are going to feel better when you fail, and guess what? They're going to encourage you to fail, quit, or not try, right? Versus those who are around there. And quite frankly, you know, there's serious, serious, uh, stages in our lives where, uh, supersede the capabilities of the people around us. And that's a difficult time. People don't leave those environments where they've passed beyond the peer group they're around. And that's okay, right? I mean, they're, you know, as we look at progressive in sports, are great analogy for that. I mean, because you're winning in high school, the people that you can't bring all the high school players on your particular team to college, right? They're just not gonna win with them. There's not everybody on the team makes it. And then you go to the professional level and you're leaving behind, and we're okay with that. One player from the team gets drafted, we celebrate his success, whatever else. We don't bring the whole team with us. Yet in life, if we move up or advance in our professional careers, we bring people that were not capable of operating at that level, they're gonna hold us back, right? And ultimately they're going to have that mindset and build excuses. And so Think about your life that way, right? Are there people around you that are going to challenge you to be better? Right? And I know throughout my life, if I put people around me that challenge me better, I always find a room that challenges me, right? Instead of one that makes me feel better. Many of us lower the people around us so we feel better about ourselves. And I'd see the standard in America, unfortunately declining, not accelerating. Right? And Michael Jordan was quoted as saying, I was not beating my competitors because they couldn't touch me. I was beating the day Michael Jordan the day before. Right. And so sometimes that's maybe what you need to do. Am I a better version of myself from the day before today? And am I challenging that individual? Because that's the only one I can truly compare myself to. And, and so it goes back to my 7th grade junior high self. I wasn't going to live a default life. I was going to define my future and I was going to be better every day. And if you make progress every single day, you know, here, that was, you know, nearly 40 years ago for me, 35 years ago. I'm way better version of myself because I adopted that mindset and maintained it.

Larry Weidel, I'm going to ask you if you can remember, but obviously you were preloaded for success by the time you were 30 in terms of not that you knew everything, but you had things, imperatives in your mind, you know, things not to do, things to do in launching the company. And, you know, your selection process of that was one thing. But then once you select it, then you got to move into another mode, you know, where you're using other lessons and everything. Can you remember? What were the negative things you observed starting at 20 into these companies, things that when I do a company, we can't do that if I'm gonna, because you already had this, I don't wanna have a default life, I don't wanna have a default career, so you're expecting above average results. Did you notice things, how things were done in some of these companies or that you worked in some of those experiences you said, okay, when I'm running things, we're not gonna do it like that, you know? Set yourself up for success because from, from the mistakes or the failures of others.

Yeah. And, you know, I'll even take it a step further, right? I study culture and I study country cultures. Right. And so just last week I happened to be in Europe and I went to where my family immigrated from, Arvagen, Switzerland. And they got on a train. Yep. They got on a boat. My, my great-great-grandfather was 18 years old. He was one of 4 boys. There was a couple of acres to hand farm. He got on a boat, got on a train with the money in the pocket, and it ended up in Nebraska.. And they were 100-year homesteaders. And so, uh, you know, and I thought about that. I said, now look at what changed, right? The Europe at that time, I mean, the American economy was behind Switzerland and Germany. We were a small nascent economy in the 1800s. What changed? Opportunity, right? We gave people opportunity and then everyone left their country to come to the land of opportunity, what America was named as. And so they risked everything. They weren't afraid to fail. They were going to win regardless. And he was going to come back. He didn't go back to see his mother until he was 40 years old. Only one other time in his life. And said, Mom, I came back a success. I left here at 18 and failure was not an option. We lost that spirit in America, right? We lost that drive and desire to leave everything behind and failure is not an option. We drive forward. But that was the, the roots of what is in this country is the best and brightest, or those who are the most driven and the hardest working, left these other countries taking a huge risk to come here.. And so I wake up each day, that's where my drive comes from, saying someone, my great-great-grandfather, who had a terrible life, right? I mean, they didn't have any convenience stores down the street. There was nobody to plant for them. There was no food. They didn't even know what worked. They didn't have weather conditions to show what it was. And they fought through that whole process to leave an opportunity for all of us that are left behind now to live the lives we live. And so our job is to carry that forward. And I would hate to see that destroyed because, uh, we're too entitled. But that's how every culture and country falls. Go throughout the history of time. They became complacent, right? I had an opportunity to go to Rome. And, you know, we talk about the Colosseum, but what we don't look at is all the other buildings in that same vicinity, about a 2-square-mile area that Caesar had to, you know, just entertain himself.

The Palatine Hill. Yeah, right.

All those things. And guess what? They were destroyed. Rome doesn't exist. Why? Because complacency. You're only the best for so long until you become complacent. And I think unfortunately, those who live a default life will fall right into that. Destruction is what happens after default.

Well, it becomes grow, you know, it's like it's gravity. It's grow or die. I don't care if you're a company, a country, an individual, grow or die. And at any point, whenever you stop, when you stop focusing on growth, death sets in and it's, it's very— it shows up in mediocrity, you know, and settling. And, you know, it doesn't come with a big train thing. It just happens by letting the pressure— you know, it's like you let your foot off pressure off your accelerator gradually. You left enough pressure off, you're going to come to a stop eventually.

That's exactly right. Yep. You want to keep moving.

You got to keep that, keep pressing. And same thing with, with civilizations. You know, you got to keep pressing forward and improving. And that's why it's so fun to talk to a person like you. And I really want to encourage you in writing these books. And, you know, you know what I want you to do? Everything you can think of to do, I want you to do it because you're going to make an impact everywhere you go. And you got a great message. And when you were, you know, you started this at 30, huge success now, but lots of things in your mind when you're starting. That you have to do? What did you do right, right from the beginning? Would you say, what did you do right?

I would say that I didn't lean into my feelings. I leaned into my focus. I think so many people wait to feel like they want to do something. Today I feel like doing X, Y, and Z. No, my focus was this, whether I felt like it or not. Right. And if I'm focusing on my vision instead of feeling like I want to do it right, I mean, we'll use another analogy. It's like working out. Not a lot of people feel like working out, right? But if they focus on working out, you're gonna get results, right? Your, your feelings are fleeting whether you feel like it then or later or earlier or later. And so I was never governed by my feelings, right? Because there's days that I would get resistance and I wouldn't feel like doing something. Everyone has those, including myself. But I knew that I wouldn't accomplish things if I didn't have focus. And so I think that's something early on I focused on the goal at hand. And, you know, I think as a leader, there can be, you know, we have a different level of insight and responsibility that we can see things that others can't see. And those who are sharing their feelings about the moment or overwhelmed or fear or any number of things, we have to be able to focus on what winning looks like, right? I mean, I was motivated by a story at one point in my career, just, I thought it was a great way to encapsulate this by Ernest Shackleton. And if you don't know the story, he basically was trying to traverse Antarctica. And basically as they got down to the Weddell Sea, they froze in there. They, the ship sunk.. And this was in 1912. And so they found their way back 365 days later in a rowboat from Antarctica to Southern Africa and came back. And he said, you know, South America, I'm sorry, is where he ended up. And they got their way back out of the UK. He went all the way down there and he said, I know who's going to save. It's going to be us. Now, they tried to recreate it, which I found super interesting, about 100 years later on that anniversary, and they failed because they didn't have the same level of focus. And just imagine if we focused everything that way, that our survival was dependent upon our focus on ourselves. No one's going to save us. And certainly there's resource to help us, right? I'm not saying we shouldn't get help. What I'm saying is have a little drive and focus. They didn't feel like in freezing cold water that they'd never see their families again. But every single one of the 26 people survived. It's an amazing story because they were focused on the goal at hand and not on their feelings. And I think we can do the same in our daily lives.

It seems like there be setting up your security, seems like there's regulations, there's you know, things that could go wrong and liabilities and you got to set this thing up. How did you get the first model? Because franchising is you set up a turnkey system. So how did you settle? How did you get started then? How did you refine your model?

Yeah. So I think out of the gate, the first thing, very, very first thing is, is if you're going to build a business, any business whatsoever, make sure it works for one person. And I think a lot of people, they're looking at the wrong one person. They're looking at themselves like, if it works for me and I make a lot of money, I'll force feed it to everybody else. Nope. It needs to work for the most simplistic customer, right? And so I remember the first day with the first client, I said, hey, what are you trying to accomplish? And specifically, he was— had a— it was an apartment complex and he had some noise issues that happened after their property manager had left for the day. And he's like, hey, I just need to do— and this is all I can afford. And I said, okay, well, I can do a patrol and I'll come through routinely throughout the night. And we got that first thing and he is like, this is great. It's less expensive than my other options. Tenants are happy because they can call someone and they'll respond to tell the neighbor to turn their music down. And then great. And then I thought, okay, perfect. It works for one. How many apartments are in America? 250,000, literally 250,000. So I'm like, okay, how many of those have tenants that live in all of them? How many of those tenants have neighbors that play loud music? Pretty much all of them. And then how many people will move out of their neighbor's loud? Pretty much all of them. So now I just got to go communicate the information. And so then you simplify your sales process once you find that it works, and then you rinse and repeat and build from there. Yeah.

And so talk about your first rinse and repeat, you know, your first— how did that domino out from there? Yes.

So I think what, you know, what you want to do if you're building a franchise is you want to provide a service that the average person can understand on an average day to deliver to the average customer, you know, with average conditions. And so that's really not— you don't want a superstar, right? You can't have your superstar on a superstar day where the weather's perfect and everybody's there. And so I really decided to simplify and clarify and cleanse a lot of that process. And so then I said, okay, our number of apartment complexes, they have to have 100 units or more. The budget is large enough, right? We want it reasonably busy on a main street, so it's easy to access. And then of course, we want to make sure that they are— their occupancy is appropriate for this particular service and the client segment. And then we began knocking on the doors and communicating that message very clearly and simply. And I think what a business like ours should do is streamline that messaging, right? When you go to a franchise like McDonald's, for example, the items on the menu are the items that sell. They have an easy way to make it. There's pictures on how to make your burger. That's what a franchisee does. And so I continue to refine the system and simplify it. It so that a franchisee, predominantly former military police, can step in, learn it quickly, and then go have quick success. I think that's also important in a business, especially in this day and age. You won't wait 20 years for success. You need quick, immediate gratification, quick success. And so we built that model that accelerated those items for quick success.

Now, with your people that are client-facing, the people are out on patrols and interfacing with the public, Do you— it's important, you know, I used to tell— talk about Disney World. I said, you know, that people don't know how much training Disney puts into, you know, corporations all over, uh, the Fortune 500 companies send all of their staff down to see how Disney trains their people because the story is you don't want Goofy to— an 18-year-old who's out there in the hot Florida sun in the goofy costume to get mad at a customer from Sweden, you know, tourists, and then wind up beating, you know, breaking the jaw, hauling off and breaking the jaw of the dad.

Yeah, that's a bad experience, right? Yeah.

Goofy kills tourists from Sweden. Yeah. It's going to take a little while to get over that. So, you know, training your people in behavior and how to react and this and the other, how do you control? What were some of your your first experiences in getting that and getting organized on that and setting those standards up? Sure. Great question.

I think, you know, we, the client level, we call it needs, budget, timeline. We clarify what the needs of that organization are specifically, and that then leads to a post-order responsibility. Then you're hiring to the skills required, right? Any organization, any location, you know, as a sole entrepreneur, you wear all the hats, right? But at some point, clearly in a franchise system, you can define what those hats are and you find people that are inclined to operate within those hats. And a lot of that's around customer service, right? And so, and that's what helps early on is we define the role and then we train for the skillset. Franchisors do a great job of doing that, right? Here's your specific role, right? We entitle that role, we list it, what it is, we define the job description and we train towards the techniques. And I think the key is you wanna leave that, especially at an entry level, to 3 to 5 responsibilities. They don't need 10,000 responsibilities, right? We, as, as we progress in leadership, we have more responsibilities, but at the very beginning, you're defining that. In a core set of responsibilities when you're leading others. And probably the best analogy I can give is how we've grown up in life, right? I mean, I have 4 children, and so each of them, as they performed in an environment, they got a broader environment. So as an infant, you're put in a little bassinet, right? And if you don't roll around and you're fine, we put you in a crib and then it becomes a bed. And then pretty soon you can operate in your bed and then you get in your room and you can do whatever you want in your room. Your toys are in there. Then if you can navigate the stairs, you can operate in the house. As long as you look both ways, you can eventually cross the street. Then we drop you off at school, right? Each of those were environments that work similar to a career. If you're not successful in your first job, day one at the beginning, you know, how do you expect to be successful when you're driving a car, which is what happens when you turn 16 as a child, right? And so, yeah, so it's progressive and we want to make sure that we give them that responsibility as an associate to perform progressively.

Now, and when you do it correctly, and it progressively grows, you can have incredible success for yourself, for the company level, but also for the people participating. Let's talk about how much you guys have grown. You've got hundreds of locations and give us an overview of how big you've grown. Yeah.

So we started this, like I said, 19 years ago. And, you know, now we're in 48 states, soon to be 49, actually, in 9 countries. We went from, you know, literally $0 to over $300 million. And we will be the world's largest security brand. And Why? Because I'm not going to stop until we do, right? I mean, it's that drive to be on that other side. And, and we're revolutionizing with technology. And I think a lot of that is super critical to understand. Is the industry big enough? And then what are you doing to innovate? Right. And as I said early in this podcast, I had had an opportunity to work alongside Amazon early on, and I knew they were going to be the world's largest retailer. But it took a long, long, long time, right? I mean, I don't think they passed Walmart until 22, 25 years later. And we're on a similar trajectory with regard to security, and it doesn't look like it today, but I'll tell you, it's a byproduct of your behaviors, right? I mean, if you look at early on, it's the discipline, it's the habits, it's those behaviors that are there each and every day. And even though I started at 30, I'm only 49 now, and I'm not here for the money, to be honest with you. I'm here to win. I think it's the world, and honestly, it's not a matter of winning as much as creating global peace of mind. Because the world needs it, right? And who is going to address it if it's not me? And that's the way I've always looked at things. Why not me?

It's a win the world needs. And, you know, the world doesn't need your company to peter out or to be mediocre. I mean, there's a pride about a growing company. I mean, you had 33% year-over-year growth in system-wide revenue. And, you know, your people go around knowing They're part of a championship team. Yes. One of the great things about having a championship company, people know on their own they're never going to be in a, you know, win a Super Bowl or win a heavyweight championship, but they can be a part of a heavyweight championship team, Super Bowl-winning team. And that gives them a pride of performance. And with every time they introduce themselves to anybody else, you know, they carry that cachet around. Larry Weidel: Yeah.

And I think, I remember at 30 years old, I was not one that said, why me? Right? I said, why not me? Add that 3 letters in there. Why not me? What am I missing that others can't have? Right? I mean, you could go across the gamut and I realized why not me? Everything else is attainable. I can acquire information, I can acquire knowledge. It's even easier now than ever before. And then I can apply it. I'm disciplined, I'm willing to do it. I will form the habits necessary to succeed. And that's where I said, why not me? But so many people live this life. Why me? Right? Just imagine if they simply asked, why not me? And that 3-letter word not is so empowering if you understand the value of that in that sentence, right? Why me is victim. Why not me is victorious. And I was really driven as a result of that. Just adding those 3 letters right in the middle of that sentence broke it up. And then that gave me the drive necessary. Why not me? Why can't I be the person that starts Signal? Why can't I be the franchisor? Why can't I do these things? What is standing between my destination and my day? And I was going to apply the technique that was necessary to make me make progress towards my destination each and every day.

Absolutely, folks. We've been talking to Reed Nefler and proud son of Sweden. Yep, that's right.

Switzerland, actually. But yeah, Switzerland.

I was— was it Switzerland?

I thought it was Arvåg in Switzerland.

To wrap things up here, folks, we want to let Reed tell us again, mention the company and how to find if they— this is up because you're— the thing is, these franchises do well. They do incredibly well. And the $600,000 and we show— Reed, you can correct this, but average franchise of $600,000, right around $700,000 annual revenue. Top 25% of the units average about $1.5 million and growth franchise-level growth profits estimated at roughly 40%. So, you know, it's a great business to be in. And if they are interested in that, so you might tell them how to find you and also the names of your books again.

Yeah. So Team Signal is the website that our security franchise is at. But I would encourage you to go to Next in Leadership. That's multiple franchise concepts we're launching for many different, you know, if you're not interested in the security industry, there's FilterGo that's there, among others. And it's really about developing your leadership skills, whether you're in business or not. And I think that's really the principal message here, too, is the first book is Transform Through Purpose, and you can find that on Amazon. Reed Niffler, it's search by title or my name. And that's really about leading yourself well. Right. And we talked a little bit about that. The second is Lead Exponentially. Again, at Amazon, there's an audio version of the book as well, and that's Lead Exponentially. And that's about leading others well. And then the third book book brand new will be released this summer, and it'll likewise be on Amazon. And that's really about leading organizations. And then you can build a scalable leading organization, identifying what organization to lead and then how to lead it well so that you can get returns on your effort and time. And then I would challenge each and every individual, say, why not you? Right? Why not you? Your future is your choice today. You can decide to be a default life and live the default life, or you can decide to define it. And then if you define your life, Why not you? Why can't you achieve it? Find an excuse. And if you want to believe that excuse, you can live that excuse out or you can decide to change it.

And it's not only a message Reed has demonstrated through his life that that is absolutely doable, folks. Thanks so much, Reed, and thank you for your example and your impact. And good luck as you continue to Dominate the securities industry where one day everybody will know number one security operation in the world. Thanks so much, Reed. Thank you, Larry Weidel. That's it for this episode. If this resonated with you, do me a favor. Share it with someone who's ready to level up. Winners find winners, and the right conversation at the right time can change everything. Larry Weidel. Want to go deeper? Join us inside the Big Hitter community at joinbighitters.com. That's where the real work happens. And if you haven't already, subscribe so you don't miss the next one. Remember that you're either growing or dying, and there's no standing still. Keep winning, and I'll see you next week.