From Ski Slopes to Cost Seg: Randall Franzen’s Path to Business Ownership

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Welcome back to the Turnalon Offense Post podcast. Today we have Rainl Franzen joining us who's the senior account executive for Cost Segregation Services, where he helps commercial real estate owners unlock powerful tax saving strategies through cost segregation and other related incentives. He's also the co author of the Hidden Windfall, which is a practical guide for investors and business owners seeking to reduce tax liability and accelerate wealth creation. With a career that spans decades in sales, business management has passions such as skiing and aviation, Randall is able to bring a unique blend of discipline, strategy and real world knowledge to his clients. So without further ado, let's jump right in. Hey Randall, thanks for joining us today on the Turtle on Offense post podcast and we're excited to have you here and just kind of want you to give us a little bit introduction about yourself, you know, and tell us a little bit about your book, maybe the Hidden Windfall.

Okay. Okay. Well, I was born and raised in Montana. I grew up on a small farm where we had the opportunity to ride horses and go skiing and do whatever we wanted to do as kids growing up. Ski Patrol at 16 and College, Montana State University. Go Bobcats. And from there I worked one year as a lumber broker. Hated Portland, Oregon. Couldn't stand the rain. Grew up in sunshine. So I moved back to Montana briefly and then a couple of buddies said they're going to go down to Vail, teach skiing one year. And I taught skiing through college. Fully certified PSIA professional ski instructors in America. So I went to Vail and taught skiing full time for 10 years. Had a contract ski in Vail and wanted to ski in Australia. So I skied 220 days a year between Vail and Australia. Skied full time till I was 33. And then I got a real job. I quit skiing and I moved to Spokane, Washington, which is the largest city close to Montana. There were no jobs in Montana at that time. Don't pay anything, you drive wheat truck. But I started out in commercial real estate. I liked real estate. In Vail, everybody had a real estate license. People were making money. But I didn't want to be one of a millionaire ski instructors that had a real estate license. So I sold commercial real estate, kind of commercial side of things. I was number two in the company when I quit. Worked for Lucent Technologies, went to the corporate world and then I, I kind of, you know, real estate was great, but nobody really wanted to talk to a realtor, you know. And, and I learned a lot about real estate and I figured, well, I'll Join the corporate world, make money and then invest in real estate. Worked for Lucent Technologies a couple years. I sold medical software worldwide. I set up resellers in Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, the uk all over the world. Manage my own international network. Doing that for a company out of Jackson Hole and. And after not making a lot of money with corporate world and kind of disillusioned, I started my own business. My brother was a freight broker for many years. He was in trucking and he talked me into starting our own business with. We were successful until the recession hit. The recession, everybody stopped buying inventory and just, I mean it just took us right out and so not knowing what to do in the recession I went back to school, got a post baccalaureate to my business degree for unmanned aerial systems. I'd been a pilot for 13 years just playing around with it. So I went to Afghanistan. I flew drones in Afghanistan for a year, came back and then started working for a company flying drones over ag. They ended up dropping smoke jumpers with towing otters as a commercial pilot multi engine. And I was just living in an airplane and an older guy wasn't much of a career but it was a lot of fun. And then trained for the current job that I'm doing while I was flying I knew commercial real estate and I found this company that would allow me to live anywhere I want, run my own business which I had done before as a freight broker. And so I started doing cost segregation work for the largest cost seg company in the United States. And it's been very very good. Running my own business and working cost seg is great.

So you've written a book called the Hidden Windfall. So why don't you tell us a little bit about that book and kind of what inspired you to write that book.

Yeah, you know the biggest questions we get from anybody who talks about cost segregation or tax savings abilities for commercial, commercial real estate owners is just the knowledge of all the different programs that are out there. There's not only cost segregation, there's a small business exemption to section 2. There's fuel energy tax credits or deductions tax credits and then 179 energy deductions. There's, there's green zip sheetrock tape which is a patented tape that gives tax benefits. There's just a whole variety of things that commercial real estate broker or owners can take advantage of. And so that was the motivation for it. And I think it's a very good book to get just general knowledge on all the various programs that are available.

So what Kind of inspired you to write, to write the book.

Well, the biggest thing about running your own business when you're in sales is I'm old, clearly.

Well seasoned. Yeah, well seasoned.

The old way of doing things is you just cold call. You get on the phone, just cold call. That's what salespeople do. But it's evident in today's world that the guys who really do very, very well look at different technologies to do that. And that's either writing a book, doing podcasts, or websites. There's a lot of different ways to reach out. And in today's market, it's a phenomenal time to be running your own business. You have great software, you have online accounting, you have mentors such as yourself that help people out, and it's just a great time to do that. Writing a book was one way to, number one, have a platform to reach out with. You need something to say, hey, check this out. It's a good way to get broad knowledge to anybody. It's just looking for a little bit of knowledge. I mean, so you've had.

You've had quite the career at the, like, the. The life experiences from, you know, your passions of skiing and flying and just flying drones, you know, overseas and stateside and, you know, to lumber and now in cost seg. Right. So you've. I've sure seen quite a bit and kind of had a lot of experiences with good leaders, bad leaders. And so that's kind of what we're trying to talk about here today, is just what are some of the lessons that we've learned and how we. How you got to where you're at now, taking little nuggets along the way from. From everything that you've done so far. And so who has. First question is, who has been the most influential leader in your life and what did they teach you?

Well, I think that's. I mean, it took me no time at all to answer that question, which is my parents. I mean, my parents, there was 10 kids on one side of my family and a couple others. So I had like 12 aunts and uncles and 40 cousins growing up. The way I grew up gave me independence. I knew. I knew that I could do just about anything out there if I. If I needed to and wanted to. And I think a good leader or somebody who's going to run their own business really has to have a sense of independence. You have to have that confidence that'll allow you to say, let me try this, or I can do this, or we'll give this a Shot, you know. So, yeah, a lot of times people look at my career and say I'm the biggest failure out there. But I think I've done exceptionally. I live in Cody, Wyoming and I work all 50 states. I make very good, very good living. I think I've been quite successful. But I couldn't do that without that. Grounded independence in my appearance showed me that I could do anything.

That's awesome. So what would you kind of say, right, like the pivotal moment transitioning from like really kind of what you were doing, kind of this almost journeyman kind.

Of.

You know, career, to really kind of leaning in and diving headlong into the cost seg world and just really, really leaning into that. Was it a person or was it a moment? Was it an experience that you had or just kind of a general conversation that kind of led you to just really say, okay, I'm going to commit to this, go back to school for it and really dive into it.

I think the pivotal moment for me that's gotten me further than I thought I'd ever get is the decision to run my own business. And like I said, I mean, we had a business that was taking on the recession, so we failed. But that, that taught me that I could run my own business. I knew how to set up QuickBooks, I knew how to set up the computers. I knew about software. I knew how to look for the right software to use for management or, or accounting or. So really the mind change there is the desire to, to run my own business, to, to do my own thing and the confidence that I could do that.

So in light of running your own business, can you share a piece of advice that sounded wrong at the time that proved invaluable later around kind of that.

Yeah. Going into business with my brother, I had to learn that maybe, well, family, you can do it, but it's a compromise. My brother was my older brother. He knew the shipping and freight business. I knew how to set up the computers and run the Software, do the CRM management stuff and QuickBooks in accounting, insurance, the business side of things, I could do. So we were very successful. Did a couple of millions gross sale from the first of the year in 08 until October of 08. And then the recession hit and times got tough. Instead of a couple of million between the first of the year and October, the next nine months, we did $111,000 total gross business. I mean, it just stopped for us. We were moving heavy oil field stuff, some of this stuff that would just stop. And I. That's when the difference of opinion happens, that's when this. Mistakes come out, you know, and we can't do this. And, you know, so it's so important, right, Because.

Because I run, you know, business with my brother too, right, on the, you know, appraisal sides with the investment stuff. And I think it's really important that, you know, it's worked out well for us because we have different strengths, right? And different things that kind of like you, right, like where we have different strengths, that we complement each other as opposed to just competing head to head. And I think it's been important as we've moved through different economic cycles and just, you know, different experiences over 10 years in business together, whatever it is. But that communication is so key, right? And in respecting each other's opinions and kind of really not being so stubborn, but really hearing the thought process around their. Their opinions or my opinions and just kind of critically thinking how to attack a problem and how to. How to address any issues that come up and then also bringing in other people who may have an outside perspective or just, you know, a clear set of eyes to kind of provide that, you know, objective viewpoint on. On the situation that we're talking through or working out. And, you know, it's been. We're in commercial real estate as well, and so, you know, it's a different problem every day, which is fun. And so it's been really enjoyable to work through that and talk through, you know, each day as it comes and each different problem as it comes. And so that's been something that's been really critical for us is just the willingness to have that open communication and not just make a decision headlong and deal with the consequences later, you know, without talking to the other person. And so I think that's really been really, really important is. Is leveraging, leveraging each of our strengths and not trying to wear all the hats, but, you know, allowing each of us to focus on where we're really good and what we're best at and then talking about the things that are in the middle.

Leadership's not about concessions, being, agreeing, agreeing on everything. It's about clarity. That's what it's all about, is your ability to sit down and get a clear path forward. That's why we, our business didn't move forward. We couldn't agree on. On what to do at that time. And it was a hard time. The recession for us. I mean, again, we went from a couple million in a few months to 111,000 for the next nine months. Huge pressure. So it just didn't work out. We decided to split up. But I did.

Yeah. How did you kind of handle those, those tough decisions when it wasn't clear what the right answer should be and how did you kind of approach leading up to that and then kind of the aftermath?

Yeah, I think that, I think we learned that it was better to be apart, to separate. And I think that definitely was the right move. From what I learned though, was I could run a business, I could run a successful business. Both of us, we chose to live in Montrose, Colorado, which is a little tiny town south of Grand Junction. But again, we're both making six figures living in this little town in Colorado and quitting at 4:00 clock and going, playing golf, you know, so it was great. We had a mate. We just, we nailed it. But when it came down to a real tough time, we had different ideas how to move forward. And, and sometimes just, that's just the way it's going to go. But you learn from that. And what I, what did I learn? I learned that I could run a business. I could do it. I knew at that point that I could do it, you know, so, so.

That'S a great lesson that you've learned. Tell us about maybe one of the hardest lessons that you've learned kind of as a leader through this journey, I think, or, or learned yourself or had to teach somebody.

I think, I think one of the biggest things I've learned not only in doing that business, but this business is to slow down success. Like I said, I'm an old school kind of guy. So I get on the phone and I cold call. I just hammer and hammer and hammer. I can, I can go fast. I know how to do that. But when you slow down after you get it moving and it's moving and you slow down, you've gotta think of ways to work smarter, not faster, and how to, how to leverage your advantages and use your advantages in a manner that's gonna make the company really successful. So you need to slow down at times and understand where you're going, get some clarity and work through those issues. You're gonna have ups and downs. And those ups and downs, you need to understand that, that things are not, you're not going to succeed every single year. You're not going to be the top 10 of the country and whatever, you know, you gotta, you gotta realize there's ups and downs and just. And keep working the problem.

Yeah, I think it's so easy, you know, as business owners to try to always want to move faster, right? Like faster growth, faster sales, faster revenue, faster, you know, bottom line, faster cost controls. All these, like, what's the next thing? What's the next thing? What's the next thing? And I think you're right. I think it's so important to kind of slow down as you build systems and machines.

Right.

I mean, you know, we're, we're both in the inner circle with, you know, with Aaron and one of the things that he talks about is building systems. Right. And kind of allowing that to, as business leaders to kind of take a step back and look at the 30,000 foot view and really almost direct or try to see all of the, all of the things that are going on in all of the directions. And you know, I think it's, it's good to move fast. Right. You talk about failing quickly and, and you know, making changes and adjustments and, and not getting so stuck with blinders on, but I, I think that really could potentially lead to you just trying to get over your skis. Right. To make a skiing analogy and you know, fall or stumble or you know, and it's so important to just take a step back and take a breath and a pause and then evaluate what's going on, talk through it.

Yep. I think the hard part to do it, you know, my, my business is just the wife and I, so I don't have a huge team that I can back off and watch them work. To slow down. I think a hard part is to slow down yourself. You know, if you're a small business owner and you only have a couple people in your company and you're the guy that's, that's making the money. So you think you have to get out there and push and push and push. There is a point where you, you've gotta, you've gotta slow down, you gotta back up and realize that, that those funds are still going to come in, but you've got to look at the big picture and figure out systems to do. Writing the book, you know, we take. And that took a lot of time that I could have been cold calling where I needed to slow down. We needed to back up, we needed to build some systems to try to do something else.

So then you, right, so business owner, you know, just you and your wife. What are some things that you do or how do you slow down to kind of create that margin and create that space for yourself as you're moving from decision to decision or season to season?

I think a huge thing is just time organization is that you. I still Treat. One of the things I learned about running my home office is I get up at 6:15 in the morning and I'm at the desk at 8:00', clock, if not earlier. And you get organized and you have your day laid out. So if you're organized in that manner and you're there every single day, then you can find the time to back off too. You can organize that time to back up and talk with the wife. She's super smart, love her to death. She's helped me in a lot of different ways. She used to work the corporate world. She worked the corporate world and just recently retired. So she's very good at what she does in the business world. And so I'm blessed to have somebody that I can back off with and sit down and talk about the big picture stuff.

Are there any like routines or anything that you, that you have that have allowed you to kind of really set yourself up for success being just you and your wife?

Yeah, I think, I think one thing in this day and age that's really great is the technology that's out there that allows me to run a business that works in all 50 states. We're doing a podcast right now. I mean, 10 years ago, I mean, geez, where would you get that?

Where would have to be in the same room?

Exactly. You know, your accounting systems, your CRM systems that are out there. So organization wise, I think your CRM is, is, is great. There's a lot of them out there. I can mention the one I, I use, but I don't really have to push somebody else's product. You could just look out there and find a ton of stuff that's very competitive. And in this world, what's going on right now with the Internet, fiber optics, to little towns like Cody, you know, it's just, it's just a great time to be working your own business. Yeah.

So, so what are some of the, the characteristics that you've looked for in mentors that you've had or if you've mentored people along the way? Kind of. What are some characteristics that they've shared with you or how have they empowered you or what are, what are some characteristics of mentors that you've had that really cause you to gravitate towards them?

Well, I think, I think you say when you're an independent business owner in that you reach out, you know, you're always trying to reach out to people who are going to motivate you and people that you, you think you should emulate. One of my favorite Guys out there was a Navy SEAL, and I'm sure you've heard of this guy, William McRaven. You know, he's done. Yeah. And when he. I think when he talks about just the first thing is to make your bed in the morning. That one just hit me huge. I think it's a. An incredible speech. If you haven't heard it anybody else, you really need to go out. And he talks about going through the Navy SEAL program and. But really what he comes right down to is from the very first thing in the morning, you need to get out of bed and make your bed. It sets up good behaviors. It's like I was saying earlier with our. With our. My routine as I get up and I'm at the desk every day, even though I'm working home office, and it's. It's in my house, I can go out and mow the lawn, do whatever I want to do. It's those habits that you start every day that really makes a huge difference. It's those little tiny things that you do. If the days. I like the end of the speech where it says, if today's a terrible day and nothing went right, you'll come back into your bedroom at night and your bed's made and makes you feel good. And every night when I go into my bed. So good.

It's such a good speech. You know, I think another. Another nugget from that speech. Right.

It's.

It's about the small victories and just incremental kind of progress where no matter what happens in the day. Right. The first thing is you make your bet. That's a one small victory. You started the day with a win. And it's about kind of compounding those, you know, and we all have huge aspirational goals and big things that we want to accomplish, and those are great. But it's. It's about, okay, what are the small victories that I can do along the way to get there.

Yep.

And I think that's. That's great. So. So you've talked about Admiral McRaven. What's another book, quote or resource that's profoundly shaped kind of your business ownership or your interactions with other people in the business community?

Well, I remember when I was selling commercial real estate and I had a manager. One of the reasons I got out of selling commercial real estate is that I didn't really like the firm that I was with. I remember one day particularly, you know, I'm kind of a type A personality, if you haven't picked that out. So wanting to be aggressive. I asked my manager to show up out in the field, and we'd go door to door and meet business owners. And, you know, and he didn't make the meeting, you know, so that stuck with me for a long time and probably was one of the major reasons why I left the company and left selling commercial real estate is because I think it's so important that you show up, you know, and by this, I mean that. That you be there on time at little meetings that you schedule. And, you know, your participation in those type of activities, just the little ones, no matter how small the person or the meeting is, is really important. So when I'm running my business, to make those meetings, to make those calls, get back to people, be in contact. That's a big thing for me, you know, so, yeah, I mean, it, I.

Think, shows so much respect, not only for yourself, but for other people, right. And by showing up on time. And people notice that, right? They. They see when people show up late or showing up earlier, showing up on time, whether or not they come prepared or not. Like, those are things in the business community that people recognize and key in on, and they make mental notes of, and it can really impact and influence your relationship with those people moving forward in, you know, in business. And so I think that's great because I agree. I think being punctual is such an important part of being in business, Running businesses, being an employee, right. It shows respect and really that you care about what you're doing and that you find it important. And people are going to notice that whether or not you're a manager, a business owner, or an employee.

Right.

When I was in the Air Force, it was so important to be in meetings prepared, you know, even if I wasn't, you know, supposed to speak or wasn't in charge of the meeting to show up and knowing what was being talked about. I remember there was a time that I showed up to a meeting and my boss was supposed to be there. Something happened, didn't come up. You know, the commanding officer looked at me and said, well, Kevin Kenny, I guess you're giving the presentation today. I said, all right, sir, let's start with slide one. And had I not been prepared or not showed up to that meeting on time, could have gone much, much different.

Yep. Makes a difference, a huge difference. Another person that I. I kind of like to bring up and same, you know, kind of vein is a guy that I really like, Cat Stevens. I'm an old music lover, and I really like Cat Stevens. Cat Stevens. Music I was, when I was growing up was pretty cool, I thought. And then he disappeared. You know, he's just gone. And then he started coming back and playing. He's back playing now, and I wonder, you know, what motivated him to do that. And each one of us is on kind of our own spiritual journey. You know, each one of us is, whether you're running your own business or you just working for the corporate world, you're still on your own, on your own path. One of the things I like about Cat Stevens, he's a real unifier. If you listen to reasons why he came back, he went on. On a. On a religious reasons. He stopped playing, and now he's back playing, and it's all about unifying, about just being a good guy, being good in the marketplace, good with his music, sharing a good message. So he's a unifier. And I think when you're in management and you're in sales, you need to kind of have the same attitude, you know, you need to not. Not be, you know, so stubborn that you're gonna force your way into something. Be a good leader. You have to be flexible and. And like you said, I mean, be prepared and ready to roll with whatever comes up, you know, and so I like that. Sleeping.

That's awesome. All right, final kind of final two takeaways here. So if you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring leader, what would it be?

Show up and do the little things.

Well, that's awesome. And then who's someone we should all learn from and why?

I like Cat Stevens. I think you need to be a unifier again. I really do. I think. I think in this world, especially right now, and a lot of the political things that are going on, we see a lot of devices in us out there and. And especially when you're talking about business, that's. That's not a good place to be. Be a unifier. Keep that spirit. Like. Like the message says, get up and make your bed in the morning and be happy about the opportunity that you have. Because really right now, if you're going to be a leader and you're going to run your own business, stuff like that, it's perfect time. The software is phenomenal, our communication phenomenal. The business world's great. So it's a good time to be. To be out there and. And do awesome.

And then how can people reach out to you, find you and connect with you to talk to you more or learn more about cost segregation services?

Where.

Where can we reach out to Randall Franzen?

Yep, I'm on LinkedIn. You can email at any time. Randall Franzen that's Randall with 1 L R N D A L1L.Franzen F R A N Z E N@CSSiservices.com C SSI Services.com for the largest independent cost company in the United states. Been around 22 years, down over 55,000 cost seg studies in all 50 states.

And we'll put a link to Randall's LinkedIn and his email address in the show notes for anybody who is looking for those. Once again, Randall, thank you for being on the podcast today. I appreciate it. And thank you everybody for listening to the Turtle on the Fence Post podcast today.