0338 | Laundromat Millionaire: From Poverty To Purpose With The Grit to Elevate An Industry

Dave Menz, www.laundromatmillionaire.com. you're listening to EA interviews.

EA interviews. Episode 338, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week, join Mario Ficcini for today's expert authority effect interview. I don't know about you, but I have always wondered why are some businesses successful? Why are some businesses not? Doesn't having a dream equate to having a successful business? I have found over the years, decades, truthfully, since I started all this, the answer is no. You can have the best heart in the world, you can have the best dream in the world and good for you, go for it with all sincerity. But it's not going to equate to success. Now there's people who are successful and I personally think they're pricks. They'll never be on the show. I like the people. Like the gentleman I have today, Dave Mentz, laundromat millionaire from poverty to millions. And he doesn't only own a laundromat, he owns a chain of them. He's a great guy, ultra successful, and I can't wait to dive in because he's going to be sharing the story of where he came from to where he's going to go. And I want him to bridge that gap for you, Dave Mentz. Right after we thank our sponsor. So you've got your book mostly written, but now what? Visit getmybusinessbookpublished.com today to learn how you can publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's getmybusinessbookpublished.com Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Dave Mentz. Dave, how are you feeling today?

Good, Mario, how are you?

I'm feeling great and I can't wait to honestly learn from you. I get the easy job of just asking the questions, but sincerely, congrats on your success. And you know what, what would you say is the biggest contribute to contributor to it?

Probably the biggest contributor my success is. I just don't know how to quit. I tell people, you know, everybody talks about their superpowers. It seems to be a fun thing to talk about nowadays. What's your superpower? And I tell people, I don't know that I really have any. I just won't quit. Like you gotta, you gotta kill me to get me to quit coming. And you know, there's, it's good old fashioned tenacity, I suppose.

That's fantastic. Well, how did you end up choosing the laundromat industry.

Well, I've wanted to own a business since I was a little kid. I actually, at my, my kindergarten graduation, actually, they asked all the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up and actually said I wanted to own a business. I didn't know what an entrepreneur was back then, but that was my answer while everybody else was saying they want to be a professional baseball player and everything.

But the truth of the matter is I didn't always dream of owning a laundromat. I just dreamed of owning a business. I didn't really care what the product was. I just love business business models. I'm kind of a business model geek, if you will. And the truth is I came from, you know, from a pretty poor background. I didn't graduate, didn't go to college, and so I didn't have a lot of options in life. And I got an entry level position at a local telephone company in Cincinnati, Cincinnati Bell. And I got that job and I worked my way up, was there for 12 or 13 years. And I had the middle class dream, you know, the white picket fence. I had a young family, a newborn baby at home, the whole nine yards. And I just realized one day it just clicked with me, like, what am I doing? You know, I'm 33 years old, 32 years old, I think, what am I doing? Why am I, why am I continuing to trade my time for money when my dream and ambition is really to own my own business? So I decided that day to pursue it and do something about it. But the thing was I didn't have a lot of money and I didn't know what I know now. But I did think that I needed some seed money to get started. So we saved up over a few years and I started looking into all the different business models. But I knew whatever I acquired and got into that I probably was going to need to keep my full time job, at least temporarily. And so I knew that that eliminated a lot of business models out there and there was only a handful that were really in that wheelhouse. And the laundromat was one of them because it's a flexible business, it's semi passive in some ways. And I thought that I could enter the industry.

And own businesses as, let's call it a side hustle, for lack of a better term, and then eventually grow as a business.

That's the new term to it nowadays, isn't it?

Right, yeah. Which I, that term actually drives me crazy. But. But it is what it is. Um, but yeah. So, long story short, I was looking for something I could do along with my full time job, grow it to the point where it could replace my income at my job so I could quit my job and focus on it full time. And then I was hoping that if and when I did that, that I would be able to take the business to another level. Um, so, you know, I, as passionate as I am about our industry and the businesses that I have and the, the chain of laundromats that I own and how laundromats are an essential, you know, community resource. And I love everything about the industry. The reality is, until I bought one, it was just like another business to me. And then I just fell in love with the industry and everything that it stands for.

Let me ask you, how long did it take from you? I heard a few things in there and you said, I got the idea here. We saved up for a few years. How much did you have to save up and how long did it really take? Was it two years, three years, five years?

It was probably close to five. I think it was between four and five. And the reality is, during that whole time as we were saving, I was always looking at businesses for sale and different business models that I could start. But in the beginning, we were saving roughly 6 or 7,000 a year. So we were a middle class family and saving 5, 600 bucks a month is about all we could handle. And so year one, I would have six or seven thousand dollars. Well, that's not going to get you too far. Year two, I'd have 12 or $13,000. And so every year we did it, it opened up new opportunities for me to pursue. When we got to that four or five year mark, you know, I had enough seed money where with a small SBA loan, I could actually, I could actually do something. And it was perfect timing because I found a local laundromat for sale that was a rundown dump just a couple miles from my home. And it just ended up being. Yeah, it was, it was a perfect storm in a lot of ways, because if it were nicer and well run and well managed and everything, it would have been much more expensive and I wouldn't have been able to afford it. And if it had been two hours from my home, the whole side hustle thing really never would have worked with my job because it would have just taken too much time and resources. And so I didn't know anything about the business or even a lot of businesses. I just knew that, well, whatever comes my way. This place is a couple miles from my House. That seems like a good thing.

Yeah. So it's nice having that convenience factor.

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And I worked a lot of hours. I was a telephone lineman. I was the guy that, you know, climbs the telephone poles and fixes the phone lines and stuff. So I mean, I would go to work and there were some days that, you know, I'd work the 9 to 5 shift, but then we would get emergency call outs and stuff like that. And a lot of times an eight or nine hour shift would turn into, you know, 2, 12, 14. I got home and I never knew from day to day what, what that would look like and you know, call outs on weekends and stuff like that. So it was a, it was, you know, I had an hour commute each direction. I mean, I just had a lot of things that weren't working for me. And I just thought, well, the fact that this is two miles from my home, that has to be a good thing and play into my favor. And it absolutely did. It was, it was, you know, it was fantastic in that sense. Yeah.

It's interesting. I love how you noticed it. And I've noticed a lot of successful entrepreneurs. We look for the vision and we look for the future. I mean, you can see a rundown car, house, home, business, whatever. And it's like, who would want that? And it's like me, because it's going to be pennies on the dollar.

Yep.

You know, you pay, you pay for the, for brand new, everything sparkly, you're going to be paying a premium. Now if you don't have the skill set, the team or anything or even the know how, or I'd say, I'll even make a joke and say, or five minutes to watch a YouTube video on even something to get on the right track. No, Pete, most people just don't want to. But when you're saying, hey, it was a little bit run down, well, great, now you're not paying, you know, that premium or even double what you could be. So how long did it take to turn it around and get it back to the point where it is, wow. Now it is that desirable business that you want and everyone else wants and you could sell for a premium.

Well, that first location, because we had limited capital and limited time. I mean, it was when I first bought it. I didn't mention to you, Mario, when I first bought it, I was losing money on top of that. So I bought, you know, I paid roughly $85,000 for this business that was losing money. Everybody in planet Earth knows a business that's losing money isn't worth anything. But, you know, one thing I had learned about the laundromat industry is it's very capital intensive. The infrastructure that's in a laundromat setting is. There's a ton of value to that. And so I had. I had learned that much about it, and so I knew it was worth something. And I did kind of a competitive analysis in the area and looked at competitors, and there was roughly nine, if I remember right, it was nine laundromats within a 20 mile radius in any direction of this store. And every one of them were just terrible condition, which is actually common for our industry. Unfortunately, that negative stereotype associated with the laundromat is, Is well deserved. But the reality is within four or five months, pouring everything we had into it, sweat equity and everything we had saved, we got it to the point where it was profitable. It was probably making 1,500 to 2,000amonth in actual profit at that point. And that's when I really caught the bug because I was just like, okay, I knew it. Like, I knew I was onto something because I knew I was just getting started. We hadn't even really put any new equipment in it. We were just putting lipstick on a pig and putting band aids on everything. And it was just. It wasn't a great situation. But when you come from poverty, you learn real quickly the word grit and elbow grease and you just. Because you don't have an out, there's not a choice. You don't have a choice. It's that or nothing. And so I just dug in and the reality is that that store has probably always been my least nicest store because within nine or 10 months, I acquired a second location that was also a rundown dump, but I had no money. Like, my credit cards were maxed out. Like, we were tapped. But the good news was at that point, my first location was making two or three thousand a month. And so we literally doubled down on the second one. And being successful having an existing laundromat, being in the industry, we were actually able to borrow some money for capital improvements and things like that. And so that's really what kind of propelled us was, you know, so I joke to this day that to this day, that first store is still. I mean, it's certainly a nice laundromat, but it's not as nice as my other three because by that point I just had more resources available to me.

And I love the timeline there because I'm doing this all on the fly. But if you were saving six to seven a year for four to five years. That puts you at roughly 35,000. And the loan was probably for 40 to 50.

Well, we didn't put all of our cash down because we knew we needed a lot of money to put into it.

Okay.

The loan I think the SBA required us to put, I think it was 20,000 down. And then so we had roughly another 15.

But you had some leftover to do, improvements and stuff. And you said within four months, you know, and that's what I was smiling about, 1500 to 2000amonth. So you were saving 6, 700amonth. And it took some time. And some people might not even want to. There's actually like 99% of people wouldn't even want to wait, but 6 to 700amonth, and now you're getting 1500 to 2000 within the first four months. And you said by month nine, it was kicking off two to three on the first location, which allowed you. So it took you four to five years to get that first one, and it took you exactly nine months roughly to get a second location. That is some huge time compounding. And I want to ask you, is that one of the reasons you went into business, because you mentioned the hours for the linemen and just the uncertainty of it. Did you want to own your calendar? Did you want to own your time back?

Yeah, I wanted to have the cliche, the financial freedom. One of the things that when I got kind of burned out, corporate America, you know, had a good job. I was probably making 40, $50 an hour and probably 70 or 80 with overtime. And so that's a pretty good middle class job in a lot of environments. And when you grew up poor, that was really good money. So the truth of the matter was I was very happy and content in the corporate America world for a while. And then one day I just realized, like, we only get so much time on earth and every hour that goes by, we don't get back. And here I am training an hour of my life for, let's call it 50 bucks. And I just kind of had this like light bulb moment as a young adult. And I was like, what am I doing? Like, there's more to life than this. And, you know, and like I said, I knew I couldn't do anything about it immediately, but I was like, I got to like, I got to start doing something different or I'm going to be 50, 60 years old and body's going to be broken down because it was a blue collar job. And you know, who knows? I'll even live because it was a dangerous job. I mean, it was, it was not a safe job. And it just, you know, it just didn't. It just didn't make any sense to me to continue that path. And I'd kind of reached the pinnacle of my career. Like, unless I wanted to go into middle management, which I really didn't, then there really wasn't anywhere else to go but to just keep trading my time for 50 bucks. And when I started to look at it through that lens, I was just like, looked at myself in the mirror one morning, I was just like, what am I doing? There's got to be more to life than this. And I tend to look at things through the lens of time a lot of times. And I remember looking in the mirror that morning and I was just like, you're 28 years old.

You have your whole life ahead of you. What are you doing selling your time for 50 bucks? And that was really just kind of my light bulb moment is if I got it, I got to start doing something different.

What if you went into middle management? Where would it cap out? Per year?

Buck and a half?

Middle. Middle and no middle managed. Well, I guess it defines. Depends on what you define as middle management. Yeah, I'd say six or low six figures.

Okay. Now in business, what's the cap?

There is no cap.

That's nice, isn't it?

It is, it's very nice. And in fact, I've learned about myself, I didn't always realize this, but I've learned about myself that I have this abundance mindset. It's just naturally. I'm sure I've learned it from a lot of places. I've read a lot of books and stuff, but I have this abundance mindset. And the reality is that early in life I was always told, if you don't go to college, the only alternative is working a fast food restaurant. There is nothing else. And obviously I learned that wasn't true. And so I made a decent middle class living without going to college. But then I was like, okay, but this isn't enough. And then I got my business and I was like, oh, I got this little side business and it makes me a couple thousand a month compared to most people. Having a good job in a side business that doesn't require a ton of time, didn't require a ton of investment, you know, for the most part is semi passive or flexible. You know, hey, that's pretty good. And then I was like, but what if I get another One. And what if I get another one? And what I've told people is since really since I was. I would stay starting at the age of 28, ever since that point, I've just realized that every time I put a ceiling on myself, psychologically.

I shatter that ceiling. And when I do, or when I have done that in the past, what I've always done is raise my ceiling and said, oh, I thought 60,000 a year was the maximum and I had to work 40 hours a week and climb telephone poles to get it. But now I realize, oh, I can do a hundred and maybe not have to climb telephone poles forever. And then I realized, oh, well, maybe I can do 150 and not have to work another job. And all these self limitations that I put on myself that, at least psychologically, a lot of them had to do with me not going to school, where I went to high school, they just pounded in us just ruthlessly that you will be nothing if you don't go to college. There is no other alternative. And I didn't know any difference, so I just believed it.

But ultimately what I'm getting at is that I've learned that every time I put limitations on myself and then I achieve or overshoot those limitations, I. At one point I just kept raising the ceiling. And then probably three or four years ago, I was like, what am I doing? There ain't no ceiling. There just is not a ceiling. And that was a. I mean, this might sound kind of silly to our audience and stuff, but the reality is like, it took me until I was in my early 40s to really that. To click even. So, you know, growth, self education, all these things. I mean, they hit us all at different times. And it took me 20 years of being an adult to really figure out that I'm not really limited by anything other than my own knowledge, my own education, my own creativity, my own network, the value of a team that I can put together that can. That we can leverage all the things that just make business a beautiful, beautiful thing. And now I realize at 45 years old, I realize I have no limitations. Like, you could be a person. There's not a person on the planet that could convince me I have a.

Limitation at this point that is amazing and inspirational too, because there's so many people that don't believe that. And myself in the past was one of them, because I didn't graduate college either. I started my first business when I was 12. I remember asking my parents, do I have to go to 12th grade? Because I was already I was making more money from my business businesses than I was from even working anywhere. So I was like, why am I going to school? I hate it to begin with. And. But, you know, you hear the same thing. Just like, like you're saying, where are you going to college? Where are you going to college? It's like, is there some truth to this? And, you know, you don't want to be disrespectful, but at the same time, in my heart, it was like, this isn't for me, and I just know it, but I couldn't articulate it at the time. And as far as the age thing, I've fallen victim to that too. No, I'm not a victim. I've fallen, I believe the falsehood in the past of, you know, look at Zuckerberg, look at all these people, you know, quad billionaires by 22 and all this. And it's like, oh, why am I not there yet? Because it's literally a one in a million. It's not that it's not possible, but it's like you're climbing up Mount Everest without a backpack or a coat. You know, Ray Kroc didn't start his business till, what, 55, 60 or whatever. So the age thing, you know, I get it. You know, I'm not in my 20s, but at the same time, it's like, well, I am supposed to be Zuckerberg by 22. However, better to find out by 40, 45, 50 than never, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I've learned that even though it took me a while to figure it out, and I'm a. I'm a slow learner. I've learned, I've learned about myself that the reality is that I'm probably still in the. I don't know, I don't like to categorize things, but 3 to 5% of population in the world, that. That is not only chasing my dreams, but is already living my dreams.

For sure.

I've shattered what I thought was my ceiling five or six times. And most people that knew me when I was even in my teenage years or even early 20s, like, they don't know me. They think they know me because they knew me when I was 16. But I've been studying, reading, research, I've read thousands of books, podcasts, just, you name it. I cannot get enough information. So I joke all the time because my wife is an academian, She's a school teacher. She has a master's degree, straight A student, you know, full ride to college for academics. I mean, she's a stereotypical academian in every way. And I joke with her all the time that I'm the most. I'm the most educated, uneducated man on planet Earth. Because I have no documents, no papers, nothing to hang out the wall. It's just a whole lot of books.

Same way with the books I remember with the summer I read 14 out of the 18 at the time, Rich dad series books. It was just like. And after that, I'm like, oh, now I can articulate what I've been thinking the last decade. Yeah, I'm not wrong. This is possible. And the truth is I had been doing it, but it was just like kind of a hot. I mean, shoot, as in my teens, like, I just got my car. Like no business mogul at that point in my mind I was. But the hardest part was just articulating, here's what I believe, here's where I'm going. Well, why aren't you doing this?

I don't want to. I mean, that's not an argument. You know what I mean? It's like once you get that knowledge, the belief, you have to have the belief. But when you have that knowledge there and you can have a coherent conversation, people start believing you and backing off. And then you just go out and do it clearly, and then no one questions you anymore.

Yeah, now. Now I have people way more, quote, unquote, educated than I am. I mean, I have. I have on one side of my Hamlet family, I have over 40 cousins. And they're all good people, don't get me wrong. But when it comes to success, you know, I'm way more successful than any of them. And some of them are doctors, but, you know, and that's just not a. That's not just an income thing, but that's a lifestyle thing, a happiness thing. I mean, there's a lot that goes into success, at least in my mind, how I define it. And I mean, I'm living my dream in every way. But one of the things that allows me to not put limitations on myself is not comparing myself to others. So I use that example. But the reality is I don't compare myself to anyone, anyone else. Only thing I compare myself to is who I was yesterday. And I just say, I want to be better tomorrow than I was yesterday. And that's all I'm comparing myself to. And that's how I've been able to accomplish the things that I've been able to accomplish. That quite honestly, no one that has ever known me at any point in my Life would have dreamed I would have been able to accomplish, including myself. Nowadays, I'm. You know, I'm very well aware of my limitations, which is zero. But there was a time where I absolutely believed I was only capable of this, this, and this. I bought that, and at some point, I shook that off. So it's a pretty frame for you, for sure. Thank you.

So I have a couple more things I want to touch upon. Ask.

Qualify.

Not really qualify. I just want to ask you more than anything. I don't know why I'm trying to make up words, but.

You touched on how you grew up and where you're at now. I never like to pry or push or anything. However, I have been trying to be the best host I can be and learn more and pull out. So I do want to ask, how did you grow up? And you've been saying in poverty a little bit. This. You don't know where I came from. What did that look like? Mm.

Well, the first thing I'll tell you is I'm one of the most transparent people you'll meet, so ask away, Mario. All right, perfect.

Thank you.

I'm happy to share. There's really no limitations as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, my parents, you know, I grew up in Flint, Michigan, which is a rough area in general Michigan. Yeah, I'm a big. I'm a big Michigan fan, for sure. And that's where all my family was from. But the reality is my parents, you know, met when they were in high school and they had a baby and were married their entire senior year of high school. So you can do the math. We started out behind the eight ball, and neither side of their families were by any means wealthy, so there wasn't much help other than just some hugs, financially speaking. And that was my brother, who's two years older than me. But the reality is I was born two years later, and they were probably 19, maybe 20 at that point, and had a family of four and no education, barely graduated high school. My dad joined the military, joined the air Force, and our family of four eventually turned into a family of five when my little sister was born. But the reality is he was just an entry level, you know, peon in the. In the air Force, and he made, you know, a commensurate. A commensurate salary. So the reality is, I don't ever remember, like, we were never homeless. Like, I always tell people, I don't want to compare poverty. Like, it's relative. Right. So I've never been homeless. I've Never went without a meal that I can remember. So there are people that have had things way worse off than me, I'll fully acknowledge that. But the reality is part of the grit and the ambition and the work ethic and the drive that I have comes from the fact that from the day I was born, I never really had anything that I wanted and I had most of what I needed. But there was definitely a lot of things that, you know, probably that gray area of need versus want. I mean, I loved baseball, but my parents couldn't afford for me to play just even like local knothole baseball or Little League, you know, so I would have to cut grass to help pay for that, or I would have to use my birthday money or whatever. And that's, you know, and that's roughly the first 10 years of my life. Now, my dad eventually, who's a grinder himself, he's not an entrepreneur, but he went in the Air Force. He got an education through the Air Force, some training. He became an IT person by. By later in life. As a teenager, we were probably stereotypical lower middle class. So my dad dug our family out of a very bad situation over really his lifetime. And by the time I graduated from high school, they were probably pretty solid in the middle class. But even then they didn't have the money to pay for me to go to college. I mean, they just were happy to have a small house and a reliable car. You know, that's what middle class looks like. And so that was my upbringing, but I wouldn't change it for the world because I had a mom and dad that loved me very much, that supported me and cared for me. But I really wonder sometimes that, uh, sometimes when people grow up with all these advantages, financially speaking, in kids, and I even wonder it about my own kids, if I'm honest. I really wonder, like, are they. Am I. Am I actually setting them up for a disadvantage compared to the way I was brought up? Because there's no doubt in my mind I wouldn't be who I am today if I hadn't lived the life I've lived and experiences the experience, the things that I've experienced. So one of the things that still drives me to this day is no one's going to ever do anything for me. And so, like, that's it, you know, if I want something, I gotta go get it. And when I was a little kid, I had to deliver newspapers and cut grass and sell candy and all the, you know, the lemonade stand and all those things. But I wasn't Doing it to be cute and funny and then went back in and watched TV like I had to make 150 bucks and that's all there was to it. And I was not going to quit until the sun went down and I had 150 bucks no matter what that looked like. So that, I mean, that was my upbringing. Plenty of people have a way worse upbringing than me, and I'm aware of that. But the reality is our family was behind the eight ball financially, at least for the majority of my life. And when I was a young teenager, when I was 14, my little sister got brain cancer. She ended up struggling, thank you. She ended up struggling for five years and eventually passing away when I was 19. So the reality is that that can really, really not can. It does really take a toll on a family, financially, emotionally, every aspect of it. So the point is, even as my dad got to the point where he had a decent middle class job, we had just this financial tidal wave and emotional tidal wave just consume our family for the next five years. And so, I mean, as, as he made a little bit more money, it was basically all going to prescriptions and hospital bills and emergency surgeries and all the, I mean, it just took over our life. And you know, I can't imagine how my dad felt having clawed for 15 years to get his family out of poverty, started making a halfway decent living, and then had just this monumental, you know, tidal wave of unexpected emotions and financial things that he couldn't control and he had nothing to do with. So the reality is, even though he was making better money, when I was a teenager, we really were, you know, pretty lower middle class, if not even still fairly poor. I mean, he kept their roof over our heads. But short of that, I mean, this is a long time ago, but I remember my dad telling me this story of when my sister was sick. At one point they had, he had insurance and her co pays or his, her prescription co pays were $5 and there was one month that they spent $370 on prescription co pays. So you can, you can do the math. I mean, this is back in the late 80s, early 90s. But you know, if you look at prescription co pays nowadays, I mean, I don't even know what the numbers are, the math, but I mean, it would have to be the equivalent of $1,000 a month just in co pays for prescriptions for her.

Oh, it's probably even more than that.

Yeah. So I mean, it was just, you know, everything in life that's kind of.

Crazy because that's Somewhere in the ballpark of 60 to 80 prescriptions.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Or 60 to 80 refills or. I don't know the number of prescriptions, but that's an enormous amount.

It was. I mean, she. She was as sick as any kid can possibly be for five years. It was awful. I mean, she had five or six, eight or nine hour surgeries from world renowned surgeons that would fly in from overseas and perform these surgeries. It was very. It was a lot. It was a lot for our family to go through. So the reality is, financially speaking, as my dad was trying to claw us out of poverty, we kind of got hit in the stomach again for five years. And unfortunately, she eventually passed away. And then that's when they really, you know, probably found themselves in middle class, which is when, at this point, I was an adult, but they didn't have any money to help me with college or anything like that. So here I was, a young adult, my sister just passed away, and I'm just. I'm just looking at the world going, I have no idea what to do, but I got to get to work.

Yeah. You know, I've gone through things myself, and I personally, at least with my personality and temperament, I would say the emotional toll, you can always make money back. It's not fun to have a catastrophe, but the emotional toll, you know, I'm really sorry to hear that. But at the same point, I get where you're coming from, because it's like, if I didn't go through that, would I be the person I am today? Because I know people that grew up worse, grew up the same, grew up better, and every single one. It's like you might have all the resources in the world, but your parents never supported you. And you have no time or you have no resources in the world, but they supported you. But everything was an uphill battle or some combination of both. It's like, what's the scenario where it's like everything's good and you don't have any heartache? Well, you're not going to be the entrepreneur you are without it. I don't believe.

Yeah.

Or at the very least, not relatable enough.

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, one thing, there was a time in my life where I felt sorry for myself. Full disclosure. But the reality is that, you know, as you get older, you mature a little bit, you have a lot of conversations, you do a lot of reading and self evaluation, and you eventually realize that, you know what, the things I went through are different than what other people have went through. But we all go through things. No one is exempt from them, no matter how things appear on the outside. You know, we all have our adversities. And the reality is that's a part of who, you know, part of how we become who we are. And so, you know, as warped as it may sound, Mario, I mean, I'm grateful for it. I mean, I'm not grateful that my sister passed away, but I'm grateful for the knowledge and the experience and the perspective on life that it, that it gave me, you know, at a fairly young, impressionable age. I mean, I passed away when she was 19, I was 14 when she got sick. So that's a pretty impressionable time impression.

I mean, that's literally a quarter of your life. Yeah, because it wasn't a finite thing. I think not enough people realize, hey, something started here, but it went on for this long. It's like, well, relative to the age, what percentage of that, I mean, if something happens from 20 to 40 or 10 to 20, they're both 20%. That's half your life. That's a lot.

And to be honest with you, Mario, that the conversation I talked about a few minutes ago and I said, I just had this, ah, moment of what am I doing with my life? Why am I trading my hours for $50? You know, it was, it was 10, 12, 13 years later maybe that I had that aha moment. But I'm very confident that it had something to do with my sister losing her life at 14. I mean, she was nine when she got sick and she passed away at 14. And I don't know why it took me that long for it to click. You know, probably a lot of self evaluation in there too. But the reality is that I have no doubt that that was at least a piece of that. If is what, what am I doing? Like, Lisa was her name. You know, Lisa didn't live past 14. And here I am, like I was probably 28, 29 at the time. And I'm not chasing my dreams. I'm just trading my time for money and a job that I'm, you know, when I first started it, I enjoyed it, but by the end of my corporate career, I was pretty miserable. And I was just like, here I am, 33 years old and miserable.

You didn't want to spend the next 50 years continuing on this?

Absolutely not. And I didn't care what the result of that was. Like, I didn't care how hard I had to work, how much I had to sacrifice. There was two things, and there still are two things that I'm not willing to do. One of them is do anything that's illegal. The other one is do anything that I view as unethical. And that's a gray area for people. I get that. But those are the two things that I'm not willing to do. But short of that, sacrifice, delayed gratification, humbling myself, you know, all the, all the things that come with being an entrepreneur and a business owner, I have no problem doing and never have and still don't. Even though at this point I probably don't need to do those things anymore. Like I said, that ceiling just keeps getting raised. So I just keep chasing this false ceiling.

Yeah, it's, it's great that you're willing to do it, but I can also relate. It's nice when you don't have to as much anymore.

Absolutely, it is.

Thank God for the break. You know, 20 year overnight success.

Right, right, right, exactly.

So I want to ask you, you've shared so much so far, but I just want to ask you, if you were, if you were to sit down and had just a few minutes with someone and said, here's what I've learned from point A to now, from the time I started to now, what would you surmise a couple things to say. Here's the big game changers, the big pivot points, where it was like I had the belief, I went for it and it took some time. Here's something I learned after my first one and second one. What are some things that you believe were the biggest pivot points, if you will.

Or you mentioned your kids. Let me rephrase that. What is something, if your kids were starting off now, how old are they?

I have a 23 year old daughter who's married and I have 11 and 11 and 13 year old boys.

Well, it would apply for all of them because she's still younger than you were. But what would you tell them if they said, I'm thinking about business or something? How would you shave 10 or 20 years off of what they want to pursue?

The main thing that I try to pound into them every day of their lives is to live their lives. No, don't wait until you're 28 or 29 to figure that out. Go live your life, chase your dreams. And I know that's very cliche and stereotypical, but let me tell you something about the cliches and stereotypes. A lot of times they're accurate. Like they're usually true. And so the reality is like that's something that we should do. And I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but most of us, sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously, and sometimes unconsciously, but the reality is, most of us that I know, at least in America, we sell out. And I don't mean that in a disrespectful way. We give up. Like, we all had dreams when we were little kids, and at some point in our life, we've made a conscious decision to stop chasing those dreams. Oh, that's a pipe dream. Or, oh, I got bills to pay, or whatever excuses we. I don't have the right degree or I'm too old to go back to school now. And a part of the reason I do this kind of stuff with people like you, Mario, and appreciate your platform is because I just want to tell the world this. You know, I'm not really about laundromats. That's not really. That's not really my thing. What I am about is people chasing their best version of themselves being. Being a better version of themselves to tomorrow than they were yesterday. Going back to that. And that's really what I try to explain to my kids is, you know, now those things sound all great and everything on TV and in a Hallmark movie, but the reality is there's a dirty side to that, and so they know that story, too. And I try to. You know, I have a book coming out in a few months, and in the book, I try to be very transparent and honest with people about my entrepreneurial journey, because the book's called Laundromat Millionaire. And there's some. There's some connotations associated with that name, of course. But the reality is, the book is a grind. Like, it's my life story. From being young and poverty to growing up, becoming successful, chasing my dreams, being divorced, getting bankrupt, watching my little sister die of brain cancer, and eventually finding my dream life, my best version of myself. And when I found it, I looked in the mirror and was like, but this ain't my best. Like, this is the best version of myself today, but it's not the best version of myself tomorrow. So really what I do is try to just encourage people to chase their dreams. But. But at the same time, to understand that that isn't a Hollywood scene and what it really looks like is pretty dirty. You got to be humble. You got to be willing to do things you don't want to do. You got to be thinking long term, three to five years out. In every decision that you make, if not longer, you have to be willing to delay gratification. All the things that most entrepreneurs and most successful people will point to in their lives, they're. They're pretty consistently all those things. And those aren't all really attractive, sexy things to try to sell in a course or a book. It's just really not what people think it is. So being an entrepreneur isn't for everyone. Being a business owner isn't for everyone. And that's fine. Chase your dreams. If you want to go to space, freaking go to space. Like, go. Do you go be who you are. And that's really what I try to encourage my children to do. And it's really what I try to encourage everyone to do that I interact with. And the beauty of being an entrepreneur and a business owner is you get to interact with other amazing people like yourself. And when you do that, they're usually chasing their best version of themselves. And so we can learn from each other, we can feed off of each other, which is also part of making us a better version of ourselves. So I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for, but that's my answer.

I'm always looking for the honest truth, and you're definitely delivering on it. And, you know, one of my biggest benefits, Yeah, I get to talk to cool people like you and successful people and all this, but I always learn something. You know, there's times I'm just like, oh, what's the next question? What are we doing? Oh, I feel because I spent so much time in the seat in the audience, taking notes, getting every little crumb of info I could to better myself, that it's surreal to go. I remember sitting through your training and your training, and you were on stage, this in here, and I read your book and this and that, and it's like, now they're asking to be on my show. I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's cool. What are we going to talk about? Better yet, I don't want to talk. You just go, yeah. And I'm experiencing that right now. So thank you. Because so many people don't want to tell both sides of that story. I personally do, because it rounds out the whole picture. You know, I've joked, even when I do guest interviews, like, what, you know, what would you say is the secret to your success? I'm like, don't give up. Give it a decade or two. If you're still around, it'll work. I mean, it's not going to be any one course or any one book or any one thing you're going to get hit and knocked down. When you get back up, you go, great. I think I just renewed my lease or whatever my another five or ten years because those are the points where it's like, I've been doing this. Do I want to keep. Keep doing it? Do I still believe in it? And I've never given up, but there's been many times I questioned it. But every time, like you're talking about something happens and you go, okay, I'm gonna keep going. It's like, yeah, I'll extend my contract with this company. It's a pretty good one.

Yeah, it's. I mean, life is an amazing journey and I'm just, I'm amazed at how many of us, and I've been guilty for full disclosure, how many of us sell ourselves short? So I don't know if sellout was the right word. That's probably the.

I think it's appropriate because it was reminding me of the quote by some smart person. I don't know who it is, but it wasn't me not trying to take credit, but it was. Most people dive by 25, but they unfortunately don't get buried for 75 years later.

Yeah.

Oh, unfortunately, that's true. You could go, you could go one, one degree a day and still be better a year later, a year later, a decade later. It's like, how are you going to go 75 years on a hamster wheel? I can't even talk about that. That's scarier than like those Saw movies.

It is. Oh, my goodness. Another thing I like to point out to people, if it's okay, is, you know, as you're making that one degree that you were referring to, the reality is, you know, we in the finance world, we talk about compounding interest and investments and things like that. Your education, your life experience, your maturation process, your network, all of those things compound too. And they're exponentially more than interest, Compounding over a 30 year amortization schedule or whatever. Like, why are we all talking about these things that compound? And when it comes to numbers and dollars and cents and bank accounts and stock investments and all these things. But we're not talking about the fact that if you learn something through adversity, through a book, through a podcast at 25, that's compounded for every person that you teach it to, you're leaving your footprint on the world in a positive way. Not just, hopefully not just in your children, but in everyone that you touch. And that's why I love doing these kind of things. That's why we have our podcast, is because I get to learn from other people, and I see those things as compounding. So maybe there's one or two things that clicks with you a little bit that makes you a better version of yourself tomorrow that is going to compound with every person that you interact with for the rest of your life, if you will allow it to. Now, if you keep it in and that's a different conversation, but if you allow it to and you continue to try to better not only yourself, but the world. So I know I'm pontificating and I apologize. Well, I don't apologize.

No, don't stop.

The reality is that this. This is powerful, powerful stuff. And it can change a community, it can change a family, it can change a church, it can change a business. But it's not. It's not unreasonable to think that it can't change a country or a world. And so that's something that at 45 years old, I'm really, really passionate about, is just, you know, you can call it legacy or whatever you want. Just leaving my mark on the world. All the things that I've learned, I don't want to just internalize them, learn them for my own benefit, and then fast forward, I want to tell anyone that'll listen and half the people that don't want to listen.

I'm with you. I'm with you. And it's one of the reasons I failed English seven times. And it's one of the reasons I wrote my first book nearly a decade ago. And not only for the passive income and royalties and the leverage and all of that stuff, but it was also like, if I can do this, what can I do? Because that was the biggest hurdle I had. And I'm not a bad speaker. And I didn't not know English. There we go. Fantastic. You know what I mean? It's like I just didn't care. I didn't like the school structure. And the biggest hurdle for me, you know, was just getting the book done. But now it's been in thousands and thousands of people's hands, and it's still doing stuff. And I've done more since then. And that's why I've loved helping people publish and promote their books the last decade. Because, like you're saying you can take all of that knowledge and wisdom. I mean, look how much we've been talking about it. You hear someone speak, you read, read their book. What better form of communication has been around 2000 plus years? It's definitely not webinars right now, there's nothing wrong with them. I'm just saying written word and spoken word is the only thing that's been around forever and will be. And at this point, I'm sure some version of electronic whatever will be around, but it's. It's still the written and spoken word and there's really nothing more powerful. You get to stand up in front of audience or put them in your. Get in their hands.

I mean, that, that's, I believe, how we will continue to change the world and get more people over to say, huh, maybe I shouldn't be doing this. Maybe I should go for it. You know, the whole age thing doesn't matter because starting at a young age, I didn't have years of knowledge and resources. There's people who have come to me for consulting and they're like. I'm like, what's your hurdle? And they name one thing. I'm like, that's it. You know, I had like 15 I had to get past. They're like, well, I only have half a mil in the bank and I've only worked in this industry 30 years. I just don't really know how to get the website up. I'm like, seriously, that's your hurdle? Go. Go have something burned down and, like, rebuilt. You know what I mean? It's like the older you are, the more you have an emotional maturity. Just flat out, I was a mess. But the younger you are, you have the time. So I don't regret anything either. So I don't think there is a wrong time or right time. If you don't care for a decade or 20 years, it's the wrong time. When you do care now, it's the right time. So for anyone listening that's thinking, it's this, that the other thing. Clearly Dave disproved that. But I love what you're sharing and I thank you so much for. I'm glad your book is coming out. I only have one more question before we go thank our sponsor and come back for the Imperfect action round. Do you know what it is?

No.

Perfect.

It is the wheel of whatever. You have to tell me if you want yellow or black. It's going to determine the question. Not really, but I like asking.

Okay. Yellow.

Oh, nice. One of my favorite colors.

Can I call it maize?

Oh, I see what you're doing there. Maize. And blue has nothing to do with U of M. Huh?

Yellow. So my question for you is, with what you have now and the resources and still being young, where do you see yourself and company. And how are you changing the world over the next 20 years?

Well, on a smaller scale in Cincinnati, you know, we believe that our biz, our retail businesses impact their communities and serve them very well, so we want to continue to do those things. I have a team of about 40 employees that run my businesses, so I don't work in my businesses the way a lot of people do, and I did at one point. So I'm able to leverage their time and resources and benefit them financially by growing that business. So that's something that I very much want to continue to do and am going. In fact, I just closed on a new new property two days ago that's going to be probably our crown jewel Laundromat, if you will, in Cincinnati. And so that's very exciting, and I want to continue to do those things. But the reality is, through my Laundromat millionaire, my website, my book, my podcast, all these different things that I'm doing, my YouTube channel, everything else, the reality is I'm trying to impact the world. I'm trying to impact the world. And yes, the conversation of laundromats and how I've been successful comes up something I'm very passionate about. I help people that want to get into the laundromat business. That's all very true. That's all very accurate, and I'm very passionate about that. But I love having conversations. Like, a portion of this was where we're not really talking about laundromats, we're talking about life, because that's transferable to just about anyone in just about any scenario. And that's how you really leave your mark on the world and make it a better place. So the answer to your question, Mario, is all of the above. Like, I don't really see any limitations on why I can't do all these things and do them well. And going back to that, I don't want to trade an hour of my time for 50 bucks. The only thing I want to continue to do is leverage myself, my time, my knowledge, my resources, whether it's building online courses or writing books or producing podcasts or whatever that looks like, I want to do those things because, as you talked about, you wrote a book 10 years ago, and it's still helping and impacting people today. And so that's the reason that I'm doing the things I'm doing is because once I write that book, it will hopefully help people forever and ever. Amen. And once I produce a podcast show, it will hopefully help produce content for people and Bring value to people's lives forever and ever. Amen. And so that's what I'm really all about. That's what I refer to when I say this abundance mindset. I don't want limitations. I refuse to put them on myself. And good luck bringing up that conversation with me, because I won't. I won't have none of it for you or for me, either one. So that's how I want to live. The rest of my life is just impacting people. One conversation, one book, one podcast at a time. But anytime I can do anything to leverage my time and my knowledge to bring others value, I just see that in that compounding that exponential growth for the world. And this may be a little utopian, but I'm going to throw it out there anyways because it's something that's in my mind and my brain almost daily is just imagine if, like, 20% of us did that. Like, forget all of us. Like, just forget half of us. What if 20% of us lived our lives like that? What kind of impact would that be? And like, I. Every day I get up and I just can't help but think, like, I'm chasing that. Like I'm chasing a ghost. I'm chasing something that doesn't exist.

I am so glad we cross paths, because I can relate to that. When I was cutting lawns, which was my first business, that's why I was smiling when you mentioned it. I remember distinctly. It's clear as day in my mind right now. Even saying it, being on my neighbor's lawn, cutting it. I had just graduated high school thinking that exact same thing. How can I have friends all over the country? And we're all improving our own cities individually. And I was just thinking about, you know, giving all my friends 100 bucks for graduation just to help them out. And it was just like, what can we do to make a dent on the world? I mean, 20% is huge. I know with S Curve economics, once you get to 10%, it's the tipping point. And then the whole thing, it's like a flood. 20% would be. I like thinking about that, too. That it would change everything.

It would. It would. Absolutely. And you could compare these things to business and entrepreneurship. You can compare them to. Compare them to philanthropy. I mean, you can take this conversation in a million different conversations or a million different directions, and they still impact the world in that way. So we don't all have to be Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg to leave an impact on the world similar to the way that they do. We can do it one conversation, one book, one podcast at a time. I mean, this is a perfect example, me and you having this conversation. We're investing our time, our resources, our energy in doing this. But once it's done like that, that hour or two that we spent doing this is over. We've invested that. And it will pay fruits forever.

Absolutely.

If we allow it to.

It's one reason I've always pushed my show, even from day one, to the absolute limits. And we're doing another round of updating it again. I don't want to say, well, it is an upgrade. It's not like it was bad before, but, you know, I see some people going, well, how do I make a thousand episodes? It's like, well, what's the quality of that episode? I've always had the mindset, how can I push the limits with every single one? And, you know, maybe the first year there's things I didn't know, which is true, but once I found them out, I'm like, oh, we got to do that too, because there's no one doing it. Not only that, but the benefit that the audience gets of going, oh, it's not just audio. Oh, it's not just video. Oh, it's not just show notes on the website. Oh, it's not just this. There's so many resources. I fully believe every single one is this self contained asset that could be a training module. I mean, I, I had a piecemeal that crap together. YouTube wasn't around when I started this stuff. And even then you can get lost in a sea of 431 different videos. I love helping people with books and courses because it's like, here's the seven steps, the 11 steps, the 1400, whatever. There's a finite beginning and end. You start Googling stuff, you'll be Googling for a year round. You don't even know if you found what you're looking for. And if you think you know what you're looking for, the fact that you're not in the industry, there's all this stuff that you don't even know to ask about. So thank you for your time and everything because we can just give people the answers and be like, here's what you need to know. Forget the rest, go take some action. Because if you never put action behind it, then who cares?

Yeah, so that's a great point. The last thing I'll leave you with, if it's okay, Mario, is the, the idea that when I'm, when I'M coaching people, whether it's in the laundromat industry or not. When I'm coaching people, I'm really trying to teach them mentality. Trying to teach them. Don't, don't worry about that. This is the answer. If you only came for the answer, you're missing the point. How did I arrive at the answer? Because if I can teach you how I arrived at the answer and hopefully you can help me, teach me things too. That's what's, that's what's really compounding versus just here's the answer. Here's the answer.

Here's the yes. Synergistic.

Yes. Absolutely. That's always what I'm really, really out of focus.

Yeah. I tell people all the time it's not just getting to the destination, but enjoying the journey. It's like, here's the answers. Okay, you're at the answers. How much fun did you have? What stories do you have to tell? How can you inspire people with it? I have no clue because I have no context because I don't really know what happened. But I'm here.

You know what I mean? So that won't be the last thing you say. We gotta thank the sponsor and we'll be back for the imperfect action round. Titles, cover designs and promotion. Oh my. You are all excited to achieve your goal, maybe even dream of becoming an author to serve more people with your business. But it's turning out to be a lot more than you expected, huh? I get it. I've done it numerous times personally. Visit getmybusinessbookpublished.com today to take the first step on making this process enjoyable and dare I even say, fun and most definitely profitable. Your business and audience depend on it. But you know what, don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori. I went from having an idea and a possibility to actually getting my book published.

Or Catherine, thank you for making my mom number one best selling author.

Or Mary Alice what he got done for me in three days regarding my book launch.

Unmanageable.

John Cody I've worked with Mario over.

The phone and online and he's been very helpful in getting me where I needed to go with promoting my books. Rocio there's no way in the world I would have been able to do this with somebody else again. I've attempted it in the past. It didn't serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process. Adele if you're looking for an amazing business coach.

I highly recommend Mario Ficini or Bill Benner. I can't make a higher recommendation.

To work with Mario Ficini. He has been great for me and right now I won't work with anybody.

Else except for Mario.

Hey, their words, not mine. Visit getmybusinessbookpublished.com today to take the first step and I look forward to hearing your transformation as our next video success story. Once again, that's getmybusinessbookpublished.com and we are back with the imperfect action round. Dave, are you ready to take imperfect action?

Let's do it.

All right, I got three questions for you. Rapid fire, 60 second or less answers. The first one is what is the fastest path to the profits?

It's a fastest. The fastest is leveraging other people's time.

Fantastic. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

The biggest mistake they are making is trying to psychoanalyze data. The best way to fix that is to focus on your education.

That's powerful. Thank you for that. Hit a little close to home.

Fantastic three is some great question I've asked hundreds of times. What is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value.

To care about people?

Agreed.

What books would you recommend? Expert authority World.

The one thing.

Rich dad, Poor dad, the Millionaire Next Door, which is not really a business book but it was an impactful book on my life, Mario's book and my book. How about that?

Great recommendations, great recommendations. Where would you like people to learn more?

The best way to reach me is on Facebook or LinkedIn under Laundromat Millionaire and my website, laundromatmillionaire.com Excellent.

Well, make sure the links are in EA interviews for your featured page has been such a pleasure. I know we could talk longer, but.

I know we could talk longer. I would love to. I know we got to keep this some assemblance of a show, but thank you so much for sharing openly and transparently.

You got it. Thanks for having me. I agree I could do this all day. So thank you so much.

The pleasure is mine. All right, Expert authority World. We have another great episode here today. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a great day and God bless.

You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate qualified leads while increasing profit for you 247 and if so, how well are you promoting it? With the expert authority effect publishing method, it's easier and more profitable than ever. Visit getmybusinessbookpublished.com today and take the first step to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book. In eight weeks, visit getmybusinessbookpublished.com and take the first step knowing it will be your very best and you're leaving it all on the field. Oh yeah, and it's also free. Once again, that's getmybusinessbookpublished dot com.