Creating a business literally from junk, US. Army Veteran and former franchise owner, Andy Weins, shares his wisdom with us.
Andy Weins is a fourth-generation entrepreneur, Cardinal Stritch graduate, and Veteran of the U.S. Army. He sets the bar for leadership by providing the blueprint for the overall direction of his companies Green Up Solutions, Camo Crew Junk Removal, and Young Guns. His vision and work ethic give all of his professional pursuits a competitive edge. Through consulting, teaching, and podcasting, he helps his fellow entrepreneurs develop their own advantage.
Enjoy this hard-to-find, straight-shooting, advice from one that has been involved in multiple businesses.
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Jaime White00:00
Hello, and welcome to the Believe Crew Podcast; The Business Is You. I'm Jamie White, Founder of Believe Crew and your host, let's jump right in. Welcome to the podcast, today I have Andy Weins with us. Andy, can you please tell us about your business and everything you do? And of course, I want to know, how did you get here?
Andy Weins00:19
Where is here? Let's talk about that we're here. Why is that important to you?
Jaime White00:23
So here is in business, as a business owner, trying to figure it all out? What does an entrepreneur life look like?
Andy Weins00:32
As a business owner, I jumped it. I was born into business. My father owns a business, my grandfather, great grandfather, fourth generation, that kind of thing. So I firmly believe that, you know, they talked about now how your family and stress and ancestry follows you within your DNA. So for me, it wasn't about getting here it was, you know, I did a lot of things that weren't entrepreneurship along the way. I worked for corporate America, I worked for other small businesses, I joined the Army. And these things were stepping stones, but the whole time I was walking away from or avoiding, which was the evitable inevitable truth, which was I'm going to be a business owner. I am I am unemployable. I don't want to have a job a job has an obligation that I don't wish on me or those that like minded mindset. So I've been here and once I had the intestinal fortitude, the courage, the guts to lean into what I always knew in the back of my head, then I arrived, right. And there's, there's a, there's a difference there. Right? So here, I think it's very interesting. Just that word, right? Because today I'm here but tomorrow, my plan is there or whatever direction you're going. Right? Is so from a mindset standpoint, and also a physical reality, like let's do it, you know,
Jaime White01:53
So becoming an entrepreneur was always in the genes, even if you were avoiding it, maybe not quite running away, but maybe.
Andy Weins02:01
Yeah, I mean, subconsciously, and consciously I convinced myself for years I wasn't ready. That was it. Right? I had to have the capital I had to have the business partner I had to have the degree I I had to have all these answers. But the fact of the matter is, every journey starts with one step and you don't need to know where you're going to start walking right? Worst case scenario is you go the wrong direction. Well, at least you walked in you figured out you were going the wrong direction. Right in that that fight flight or freeze freezing get you nowhere to say I it was it was a confidence thing. I had convinced myself I wasn't ready. It was all mindset.
Jaime White02:38
Why the industry that you pick when we say here we say entrepreneur, and then also why the industry?
Andy Weins02:43
Yeah, well, the industry is junk removal. Again, in my blood. My great grandfather owned a scrapyard. My father taught me at an early age how to take apart ferrous and non ferrous metal of some sort and separating that also take apart. We used to drive around the nice neighborhoods the night before trash day and find treasures within what they had, right? Whether it was things my dad could sell at a flea market, you know, engines and motors that he could refurbish or you know, and resell, it was metal, we could scrap or it held toys and bikes and things like that I got so it was that I had that planted at a very early age. And then two days before Christmas in 2008. I got laid off, like so many. And then in 2009, it's like, well, it's January, I was unemployed. My girlfriend left me I'm a combat veteran. And I have no education. Well, what do I know? Well, I have a van and a trailer and I can drive up and down the Northwest and I'm walking and start digging through trash in the alleys. That's it. That's all right. So for now, people are like, you know, like, I have the pod. I have a podcast to Trash Talk Business podcast. And like, in that podcast, I talked about all of that, like, look at what we got. This is awesome. And we've done this. And people are like, Oh, how do I get there? Like, well start digging through trash. Right? Right. Because if you're not willing to do that, right, the junk removal industry, people are like, Ah, I buy a truck first or you know, should I get my LLC What should I do? I say go clean some houses out, clean out a couple of houses, do it for yourself work for somebody else. Because you don't like clean houses out the wrap and the brand don't matter. Like so for me it's like I was willing to dig through trash with the plan and really hope because it was blind faith that I would find something of value right. And it was in the end it was in those hours and days and weeks and months by myself. I started to figure it out you know figure myself out like okay, well shit, you know, when you got a mortgage to pay and no way to pay it. You got to know Yeah, just wrap up them boots and get to it.
Jaime White04:53
So how did you end up with a franchise for a little bit?
Andy Weins04:56
So I came back. So that was the days of dry Even up the alley down, up and down the alleys was 2009. Later that year, I utilized my GI Bill, I started going to college, I got a job working construction, I still did the junk rule thing on the side. It was always there. It was always hanging out in the background. But then I, you know, got distracted by life. I got to a corporate job work for waste management, I got married, I got deployed, I had a kid, I got divorced. And as I'm great even before I deployed, so when I come back, I don't want to work for anybody else the rest of my life. I do the waste management thing. It's a fine company. I'm not going to talk shit about them. I learned a lot of stuff in two years. But I am not meant for corporate America. I was not put on this earth to play by somebody else's rules. That's it, right? So before I deployed, I said, Okay, when I come home, I'm done working for anybody else. I'm going to do this junk removal thing. I got a couple shekels between my pockets, and I'm going to make this a goal. And as I'm doing my research, my business plan. I never thought about a franchise. I thought franchising was the worst idea. But then I considered it. And as I'm digging through it now I talked about the six buckets of business, but back then I'm like, I don't know anything about marketing. Right? Right. And it wasn't totally true. But I bought into this idea that hey, we're, you know, we're stronger together. Let's get into this franchise world. And I got hooked up with a franchise. Third month in business, we're the number one franchise in the country. Wow, well, 13 months in the business of venture capitalist comes by offers us the opportunity to co-invest it and go into a bunch of locations. And from the day that I signed the franchise agreement, three days, even three years later, two and a half years later, I had 10 franchises across the country. So it was just taken off. And then over time, I realized that a franchise is it's still a half-assed approach. It's still corporate II, there's still rules, there's still brands, there's still people telling me what to do. And that doesn't vibe doesn't jive well with what I do. So I got I got to the franchise world. I got involved in some other businesses, whether it was UV light businesses, antimicrobial business, a rage room, young guns, antidote media, I had a two-year non-compete. So I'll just start a bunch of businesses. And that was awesome. And I learned a lot. But toward the end of my two-year non-compete, I fell back in love with junk removal. And like, you know what, I keep running away from this thing. But it's what I really truly love doing. And I like to be part of, it allows me to develop complicated solutions, or account or service a simple solution for complicated problems. And our community needs it. And now it's given me a springboard to train coach and mentor through my podcasts and even now consulting individual owner-operators to say, Hey, you don't you don't need to be part of a franchise. You don't need to work for a company, you can do it on your own. The barriers to entry and junk removal are very, very minimal. But that means everybody can get in. So how do you compete in your market teaching the best tools, tricks, trades, all that stuff, with a huge emphasis on recycling? And, you know, community responsibility and stewardship? Because the waste industry, the salvage industry, the sanitation industry, the junk industry, they all have negative connotation, right. So if we change the narrative to be in frontline recyclers, well, now we're onto something, right? Positive, right, exactly. Like, hey, I'll take the things out of your house. And I'm going to find a new home for them. And so not only do I do that, right, the goal here is in our four walls here on Camo Crew Junk Removal, we develop the processes, we're doing it I was, I was downstairs a minute ago talking to my guys, all right, what do we do? What are the jobs, what you know, how much of it is recoverable? All these conversations, you know, and that I can come here in the afternoons in the evenings and record podcasts and talk to the rest of the world about how we can keep material out of the landfill, right. And then I do young guns, which I talked about business, and I do in the Idea Collective, I will talk about the six buckets, and I'm writing a book and it's like, I just got so much I want to share with the world, now that I found where I belong,
Jaime White09:05
That is so awesome. So what I'm hearing is that you literally get to step into your purpose. And what I love about it, not everybody gets that opportunity to step away from their business, and then reevaluate and say actually, I did like it.
Andy Weins09:18
Everybody has the opportunity. It's a choice is
Jaime White09:22
Very true. They don't take or make the opportunity. Yeah,
Andy Weins09:26
They don't choose, choose is a beautiful word. Right. So for me, I used to choose to work 80, 90, 100 hours a week, I chose to work Saturdays and Sundays, I made that choice because I didn't establish boundaries for myself. But I worked a lot right now. I didn't have a lot of money right, again. It's one of those like, I didn't have a lot of choices back then. Right like so. Let's think this through, right like I made choices. I'm like, hold on, the more work I put in today. I'm going to see those returns over time. So I just chose to invest my time in the business so that someday I could choose to not invest in business, that the challenge is, with a lot of entrepreneurs they chose, they choose to be busy and busy doesn't take skill, right? They choose to sit on social media, they choose to go to networking events that are in their best interest, they choose to take on projects that aren't fulfilling in their mind-numbing, right. So those are choices they make, right? And now when you have no money, and you have a lot of time, well, then you, right, you made choices that are skewed. And over time, as you grow in your business, you collect more data, and then you start making data-driven decisions. And your choices are in line with where you're at today and where you're going. Not where you were in the past and what you didn't have.
Jaime White10:49
Yeah, so I guess the thing that I wanted to kind of go back to though, is when you stepped away from the business, but that two year non compete, because I feel like some businesses owners could be doing well financially. And then they have, like you said, a choice to make, like, do I just maintain what I have and stay where I am? Even though I'm feeling like this, isn't it? How often do you believe purpose is sacrificed for maintaining?
Andy Weins11:19
Well, you have to you your purpose has to be you have to be driven from purpose first. Right?
Jaime White11:30
I think they are initially when they start the business, and then there gets to be a point where it's, you know, it just feels like the same old, same old like, it's this we're really, you know, when business gets boring is when it's making money. And then
Andy Weins11:43
Yeah, in order if you don't absolutely enjoy the grind of business, and you're in the wrong business, right, right. I mean, endure the hustle, hustle, right? That's you’re going up the damn mountain, right? You got to endure that you got to be like, Okay, I'm going up this mountain, right? And then I'm going to embrace the struggle, because the closer you get to that peak, the more complicated it becomes. Yeah, yeah. And you're not as naive as you were on the foothills. And then and then you have to enjoy the grind the downslope like, Okay, we got that shit. But as you go down, guess what? There's another mountain. And now you got to endure the hustle. You have to choose. Okay, I gotta go. And so what you're telling me is people are like, Oh, same old, same old. Well, they're not enjoying it. They're not looking over. looking awesome. Look what we built. Oh, look what we got. Well, that's kind of cool. All right. Well, you know what, hold on, kind of getting bored. Oh, gotta go. Gotta go. It's time to go. And the thing is, if you don't, this world will swallow you up and spit you out. Not because you're there. Yeah. Okay, because there's these, there's these uncontrollable forces called the economy, inflation. In competition, if you're just on easy, straight. I see this all the time, especially in the hospitality industry. People are like, they get a bar. I used to work in bars for years. It's like, they get a bar. And they're like, alright, I, I remodeled the bar, and I put on a new menu, and I stocked the shelves. And you know what, as long as I turn the light on every day and keep it clean? We got this, you know? Yeah. And it's like, well, well, no, because then it gets stale, and it gets stagnant. And the same customers come in, and eventually they stopped coming in because some other bars have had some other promotion going on. Right? And then you're playing? No, you gotta keep it fresh. If you don't have been motivated, but you know what, I'm going to make this place better. Every day. In the military. We talk about this often, right? If you're there, right, you have a fighting position. If you're not fighting the enemy, and you're not resting, you're improving your fighting position. Those are three options. You're actively engaged, you're resting, or you're improving your fighting position. The challenge is people are like, alright, good enough. Good enough. Let's go. Right? And they're like, I work 70 hours this week. Well, how many hours you'd really work? Yeah, my argument is you probably work 30 You were there for 70? Hell, if I'm sitting here on my phone, right? I could be like, yep, look at me. Seven o'clock at night, still putting the work in. Let's see what Tiktok has to offer us today. Right? I'm gonna put the work in. Right. I'm here. And so that's the challenge is you got to know where you're at mentally, emotionally, financially, physically right within yourself and your business to then make those data-driven decisions.
Jaime White14:41
Love that. Okay. So what are some of the things that you have found about yourself in the last couple of years, financially, emotionally, mentally, that you're realizing I've gotta to take care of.
Andy Weins14:52
The rest and digest. I am down to a all almost two-and-a-half-day work week on my on my main career, the business that makes me money. I'm really close. It started with, I'll say one day, it was significant when I'm like I joined three years ago, I joined the CEO roundtable. And we had one day a month that we had our roundtable, right? Well, an hour here, hour there, that was pretty simple, right? All right, I'm gonna go to one on one, I'm over this, whatever. But when I had to commit one day, right, there's 22 and a half working days in a month, I got to commit and one of them that's 5% of my month like that 4% want to be in 4% was called 4%. Four and a half percent. So now I'm willing to commit four and a half percent of my my month to work on myself. Okay, I can do that. Well, that I realized in our CEO roundtable, but on Thursday is the good move to Fridays. So now every like one Friday a month I can, I don't have to come into the office. And I'm like, Who? What if I work from home on Friday, and like work on the business? Right? Right. Right. Because if I'm the sales guy working networking events, it's like, I'm still in the business. That's my job, right? Building the business. I'm not hauling the junk, but I'm still very much alive and well, in one of these buckets. Like, that is my fighting position, you know? And then when I start taking one day, I'm like, man, what would happen? If I just put out of office on Fridays? Yeah. And I started doing that. And, and it took a few months to be disciplined. And now my Fridays, I'd say one, once a one in four Fridays, and Monday come in the office. So this last Friday, I came in, it worked out I, and I'm not not working, but I'm not in the office, right? Like I did, I did a coffee. I did a coffee that was more. I was actually buying from the person that's selling to them. I did a lunch that was just as much social as it was, you know, social and personal and just as much as it was business, right. And then I had some obligations that that afternoon that I chose, but I could have chose not to right, those were very, right. And there were and two of them were consulting based, right. So that's my other business right now it's not the Camo Crew, but anyways, I was in my office here, and I'm just working on one of my guys comes up. And he's like, here's a look at my calendar. He has no shit. He's like, Oh, I don't think you're gonna be in here. He's actually dropped me to drop something off for me. And he goes, you're never here on Friday. Right, like he already knows. They don't look at my calendar. They just know Andy isn't in on Fridays. They also know I'm not on Mondays I come in, maybe an hour at most I'll spend on the business on Monday. Because Monday is 10 o'clock. I have a standing call. I've had it for three years now. Two years, two years. For young guns. So Monday morning, 10 o'clock. That's my first call. I reserved eight to 10 on a Monday morning for shit hits the fan, right? But 10 o'clock, I do Young Guns. So I dedicate the time to that, right. That's a side hustle. And then I'm creating I got seven hours of content on Mondays I record. So Mondays aren't now my record day. So I'm working on the business. I'm working on my other businesses Friday, I'm out of the office. While should I work Tuesdays I work Wednesday, and at about noon. On Thursdays I start doing consulting calls for the afternoon, which has been great to know I'm not two and a half days. It didn't happen overnight. It started with one day a month. Now I'm down to a place where I work 10 days a month in my business. And my goal because I've heard a speaker say this at Young Guns shameless plug that she works one hour a month or works one hour a week in her business. She has a one-hour week, standing minute in her business. And that's it. That's the only hour that she's in her business a week. And so I have that meeting, it's 8am on Thursday mornings, the goal is that I get down to that 8am or 10am. We've moved around whatever that means, once a week, and that's the only meaning I have for the entire business. And I'm getting there. I'm taking steps and it's right. It's methodical doesn't happen overnight.
Jaime White18:53
So do you have what you would call like an implementer? That is the next main person.
Andy Weins18:58
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, this would not happen. Had I not hired our General Manager. Ken, I just promoted him now to President. He will be taking over the company in the next 13 months. So yeah, if we look at the Entrepreneurial Operating System, from our good friends over at Traction, and there's whatever, but they use the word visionary. And yeah, the implementer is an implementer.
Jaime White19:21
They use the word integrator I use their mentor.
Andy Weins19:25
There we go. We'll call it whatever. dreamer and implementer. Right? We don't want to get sued. So I'm the dreamer. I come up with good ideas, but I need someone to execute. And in the execution phase, I need someone to challenge my perspective challenge. My orientation, the way I'm seeing things right, I can observe a challenge, challenge my orientation, so that the decisions we make are consistent with where we're going. Not just another fucking good idea that Andy pulled out of his ass.
Jaime White19:54
Yeah, I was the implementer for so many years. And I love visionaries or dreamers. so that they can have 10 amazing ideas, but nine of them need to be filtered.
Andy Weins20:07
I got 10 ideas every day, ideas every day,
Jaime White20:11
right? And it creates every idea creates how much work for them. So I'm actually loving this idea that dreamers and visionaries, business owners get to take off a minimum of four months a year, even if like what you're saying is, it starts with just one day, like how can we get to the point where and maybe the four months aren't consecutive? Maybe it's you know, in days, or we
Andy Weins20:34
ya know, the year whatever. Yeah, whatever the math is, well, this is how we do it. So this is how we do it. I was working with one of my coaching clients or whatever she's in the idea collective. And she's looking at next year, right and we already said, Okay, I start bottom line, how much more do you want to make? Well, this many dollars okay, so now we know how many dollars we want to make right? And then we figure out what's your billable rate how many hours a week does just like the math, and I built the bucket right? Well, to a certain extent, bottom line up front how much money do you want to make that's a good place to start and then get to the certain extent right well, because now we're going with a Profit First mindset, right which is our good buddy Mike McCallawizt taught teaches us and, and then I say, Okay, I'm building this on a 48 week workweek. She's like, Well, why is that? I said, Well, you said you wanted two weeks vacation. And then a minimum, the Christmas week, and thanksgiving. And the order factor in Fourth of July, right after Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, you're losing two, three days each. Right? That's a week, Christmas, New Year's, there's a fucking week. Right? Well, the labor date, whatever. And then you're gonna take it you said you wanted two weeks of vacation. So that's how it starts. Yeah. But now we have the confidence because we have the plan. We have the data, right? data driven decisions. Say okay, hold on. I can work 42 weeks, 48 hours a week. I'm sorry. 48 weeks? A year. Yeah, that's what it means. If money was your was your problem, when we did the when we did her data, we were 35 weeks into the calendar year I recall this. I took a number of billable hours divided by 35 Simple hillbilly math. She worked on average 15.5 billable hours a week. That week, she fired five of her eleven clients. Wow. Because the she was given away time. They weren't paying her what she was worth. The work wasn't exciting. Right? So that's when you start to say no. And when you start to say no to one thing that means you're saying yes to something else. Right? It's starting it is Start Stop continue methodology of change when we say I'm going to stop this behavior, but what are we going to continue doing? Right multiply the time we're already or start doing add something in that we haven't added in before? Because now we've this inventory of time has become available. He's never gonna stop doing that. Yeah, right. Even just a hey, I'm gonna stop going on Facebook during the day. I noticed. I noticed for me I noticed this yesterday when I was shooting content whatnot. When I get bored, but I have to sit here so the guy when the camera the guys in the camera, they're moving the lights around. What's first thing I do I go here, he's dead scrolling. Right? When I get bored, I go to my phone. It's crack. It's cocaine. It's like, oh, what's going on? What's happening? YouTube Facebook, checking email, look at a text message. reread some shit. Senator reading PDFs like this, right that I shouldn't be reading in the first place. Right? Right. Wait till Right. Like hell. Like this Saturday, I have two hours blocked off to write stuff on my book. Because I've been thinking about it. And I know I have a homework do before Monday. Well, you don't hold on, just block out two hours on Saturday. And now boom, it's allocated is right. By add kitchen what we got on the calendar, we're good to hook.
Jaime White23:44
Yeah, owning my calendar was one of the biggest changes for me to be able to have space to think it's like just put it on my calendar. If it's on my calendar, I don't have to I don't have to use that mindspace thinking or worrying about the problem. It's like I have I have time to think about that problem later. Like,
Andy Weins24:02
I don't worry, and I don't write and even you know, I hate the word thinking. Right Thinking. You're spinning your wheels. No, yeah, I have prioritized it. I know that I have to get ready. This is the thing, right? I know that I need to get this work done on my book so that my book comes out on time, right. So now I got buy-in when I'm ready. I'm good to look. Right. I also know that I do my best work on projects like that when I have the time and space alone when I'm not in the day to day. Okay, well, that's good. I looked at my calendar. It's Tuesday. We're recording this Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I'm we're running hard. I got a lot of stuff going on. Right. Okay. Well, it's due on Monday. Okay, we'll put it on Saturday. So like two o'clock on Saturday, it's already on my calendar that just says Book homework. And then I take the Word doc, I didn't even read it. I looked at the email. I just put a little star on it. Yeah, there goes. It's pinned. We got it. We're good. I've now compartmentalized it, and I feel good. I know I'm gonna make mission. The challenge is the people that Don't bother I got I gotta do this. I gotta do that I gotta do this right it goes back to talk when we're being busy takes no skill. And I know that I'm a recovering, multitasking Busybody person that said, Give me an award for all the hours I ran around like crazy man. And I still do it. When I'm recovering. I'm not solely recovered, right?
Jaime White25:21
You're being more productive with the hours that you're doing. I want to go back to what you said though, about the word thing that you don't love because I do thinking the word thinking okay.
Andy Weins25:32
Okay, thinking and think are different. Okay.
Jaime White25:35
Well, the reason I bring it up is because Mike McCallawitz also shared that entrepreneurs need to think of themselves as creative job creators. And that thinking time is important, like, creating your high acting right, your thing, your from thing to action is probably a very short,
Andy Weins25:55
which is not great. But okay, okay, here. Here's where I'm at, though. Thinking right? As entrepreneurs, I don't have to sit and think like, Huh, what wild harebrained idea, let me sit here? No, my brain is always spinning. So, let's let's break this down Barney soil, right? I have eliminated the word thinking from my vernacular, right? And instead, I say what? Analyzing data? Okay, because the idea came in the shower, to think about it. Exactly. I am not short of f'n awesome ideas. Right? Right. And terrible ideas. However, I need to analyze them. Right? Because now once you start using the word analyze, now there's ownership. Now I have to get facts to back up. What, what's already there? Where as entrepreneurs, you're absolutely right steps, right. We need time to qualify and disqualify all the shit in our heads. Yeah. So we need to analyze it against data points.
Jaime White27:00
I like that perspective. So I wanted to come back to it. But I do see that you have, you know, very high action. And it can probably be intimidating to some, but it's really you working in the way that you work best. And it's how you're built to work.
Andy Weins27:16
That sounds like a them problem. Yeah. Sounds like,
Jaime White27:18
right, exactly.
Andy Weins27:20
You know,
Jaime White27:21
high in empathy and compassion.
Andy Weins27:24
There's a lot of people. There's a lot of people that have pronoun issues. I've come to realize in my life, they write and I write about this in my book. I don't know if I made the final cut. Whenever I made it, read the book, we'll both figure it out together, whether it may have cut or not. When was the pronoun, cue to wish? Not a Hard Find date? Because it's about quality, not quantity. It's all about making sure it's right. Not that it's fast, right? Remember, here's, here's my point about pronoun confusion. Right? People often are confused with their pronouns, right? So you say, like, Well, Andy, you know, it's a problem, right? You have a problem? The way you think too much, right? You have a problem? I don't have a problem. Right? Right. You have a problem with what I'm doing. That's a you problem. Right? Right. I had lunch today with one of my mentors and what she said she were talking about relationships. And she said, nine out of 10 times she has an issue with their spouse. It's, she's the one with the problem. She's the one that came in. Without a great attitude. She's the one that's like talking about halt hungry, angry, lonely, tired, right? She's the one that wasn't expressing gratitude towards her significant other before the interaction. Well, it's like, Okay, you're right. If you come in with that mindset. Like, just like today, I got mad at this car in front of me, right? I'm mad, inanimate object, right. And why was I mad? Well, because I chose to stick around work another couple, five minutes, which now I had a perception I was going to be late to thing I was going to, right. So
Jaime White29:13
it wasn't the car that was a problem.
Andy Weins29:15
Correct! I’m the problem. Did the car sit on the intersection for three continuous lights and not go straight because the light isn’t long? And they could have hung a right and done a U turn 100 yards away and gone into the Metro market? 100/20 in capital? Yes. They could have those are facts. Right, right. Right. But who was running late? Right, right. Right. Right. Why was it those are all facts. Those are all facts. The facts aren't Yeah, what that had been 30 seconds earlier, I wouldn't have been there. And what right so that sounds like a me problem. Right? When you say sounds like a me problem. It Right. It's it is B when maybe there's the Maybe there's a fancy term in there, like analytically empathetic, right?
Jaime White30:04
You're reminding me of things that definitely hit home. So
Andy Weins30:07
there's, like facts like fact-based empathy. Right? Yeah. Like because this is the truth, right? I empathy is not a natural strength of mine. So therefore, I have to be very conscious of that and then implement tools and procedures in place to understand other people and also be empathetic towards myself, right? I don't have to be tough, strong, you know, masculine man. 24/7. Right, I'm allowed to have feelings. The opportunity that is to have the feelings, feel the feelings, go through the feeling, and then be able to qualify those feelings with facts or disqualify those feelings. Right with facts,
Jaime White30:47
you're learning to use data for your feelings, I like
Andy Weins30:49
data driven decisions with analytical empathy, write that down analytical empathy, we're going to fucking trademark and I'm gonna make some money, let's go.
Jaime White30:58
I still want to know a little bit more about what you have going on future.
Andy Weins31:03
Alright, so book, just almost a shameless plug for the next like two minutes, because that's what that's for. Alright, so I got a couple things. I have the trash talk business podcast, I'm gonna continue doing that. And that becomes the top of the funnel for my junk removal, consulting business. So I consult independent owner operators in the junk removal space, how to run their businesses better, so that they they can build a dream that they want, and be environmentally responsible and build a sustainable business, because a lot of small businesses get in, especially blue collar ones, and they work really, really hard. But if they work smarter, they can really build the life they want. They struggle getting out of the truck, and I've seen this for my father. 30 years now. He's 66 years old, he's still swinging a hammer every day, his choice. But there's some there's gonna be a day where you can't swing the hammer. And his business goes is business dies with him. And so it works for him. But there's a job that he owned, he quit his job. He built, he built, he built himself a job, not not a not a business. Right? He is the business. So it works for him sell it at that point. Now there's nothing there's nothing. And that's that works for him. The challenge is most people I talked to they get into business, their goal is to take a vacation someday. Right? Or have the business make them income. Right. Okay. So that's why I do the trash truck business podcast. I have a new podcast coming out. It's my way of sharing my Veteran experience with the world it's called Welcome home. The transformation from troops in boots to veterans in the civilian world. I'm really excited and proud of that because it really it's it's not AFW do the F’n thing. It's more like, hey, let's talk about why we struggle. And how do we show up every day? Right? So
Jaime White32:49
but the this is a good opportunity for you. It really
Andy Weins32:52
is because that Andy right that then scarred child or whatever thread that the avatar, that person within me comes out there more and for me, it's very therapeutic. I do that with a good buddy of mine, Dylan Slusher, who is a veteran counselor, just a good dude. And we match each other's energy well, so we can talk about really deep and dark things and a very methodical manner which is it easy for me to understand and digest and the goal there is that it's also understand it is you know, it's simply I had the easy simply understood by the listenership. And then and then let's talk about that, right? Eliminate the words simpler and harder from your vocabulary, right? That's all about the book that's coming out. Words F’n matter. retrain your brain to use language that serves you. This book has been a journey. I joked for years. I do bits I got, I got jokes, right, talking about thinking, talking, trying all you're doing this lying, right? I got all these bits, I got these jokes. And there are a lot of default fighting positions that work well, as I'm explaining myself and understand the world around me, right? And because of that lack of empathy and social awareness and all that other shit, right? So I use these tools to understand the world around me. And, and a year ago, I sat with a book writer, I said, Hey, let's write this book called hustle, struggle, grind the 13 lessons of life. And after six weeks of weekly calls and doing an outline, it came down to a lot of what I talked about is the words that you tell yourself, the words that you tell others the words that you put up to the universe, right? It is a mirror, it's the reflection of those things that come back to be true. And so now that book is transformed in this book about words, and I'm really excited about it because it you know, I was that imposter syndrome for years telling the joke, hey, I'm writing this in the book in my head. Well, no, now I'm putting pen to paper and I have put a lot of hours in this last year, hundreds of hours. And I'm really excited about it because you know, when we're dead and gone. I did something I have a lasting legacy. I have the opportunity to influence people in. And that's exciting to me. It's exciting that I've learned these things. And now I can share them with the world. And so words matter words F’n matter is exciting. And with all three of those verticals, the goal for me is simple. The three-part system for success, or a definition of success for me, is I go places I say words, and I never think about money. Yeah, that's it, right in financial security. So those three things over, that's my, that's my answer. And it's not a lot of money, necessarily. But the fact that the businesses are in good hands, so that I have that, that foundation of financial security, because we grew up poor. And when you don't have financial security, it's always in the back of your head you're looking at, you're looking at menu prices, you're thinking twice about when the check comes all those things. And so it's important for me that I have that financial security, I provide that for my daughter and my family. And that I can go to the world and really, really shine and say all the words,
Jaime White36:03
I love everything that you have on the table. And it sounds like it's the perfect growth for you, right and perfect way to contribute for you. And I want to say thank you for the podcasts that you're starting. Because as you know, my son recently enlisted, and it could be I'm new to this as a mom as a military mom. And I think there are so many out there that would love to, you know, have that empathy piece from someone that's been in the field. That's amazing. Okay, so before I let you go, is there anything else that you want entrepreneurs to know? That you want to share today,
Andy Weins36:41
here is the three step process for the success in life. You know, this one I came up with at a young guns event, I, I put it all together, right? Because when you do these three steps, you will be successful in life. Here it is. Do the F’n thing. Put in the work? Perform your craft, be amazing at it. Do do all the work that is necessary to get the knowledge and get the experience needed to be successful in the world. Right? There's, there's your first step. Second step, tell the F’n world. Be proud of what you do. Or there's a difference between pride in yourself and proud and what you've done. proud of what you've accomplished, proud of what you learn. Go out there and share it with the world. Share the positivity with the world, share that experience with the world share the knowledge with the world, the world needs more positivity and enlightenment. Right? We live in dark times in bullshit media outlets and politicians and all this shit. Go out and share it with the world. Right? The Enlightenment era we're on the cusp of again, let's F’n go. Right and then the third step. Shut the F up. This is important. Tell yourself to shut up. Tell your ego to shut up. Do the work. Right? Tell your insecurities to shut up. Tell the world be proud of what you've done. Right? And tell the people in the cheap seats. The people that don't invest their time, their effort or their money into you. Shut the F up. Your high school bully the family member that said you're never going to be good enough society that said you're not great. Shut up. Yeah. And then go back to doing what you do best. Everyone was put in this world for greatness. Go out and find yours be unapologetic. Don't follow social norms. Be you when you do that. When you do that, not if when you do that you will be enlightened. And that no momentum. I wrote this earlier today to someone I was she were talking about getting up this morning and running and how often people don't want to get up and running. I'm like, Yeah, who wants to get up and run in the money? That sounds terrible. And so I came up with everything in my life is threes. I gotta find this before we get off this podcast. Right? Because that's how my brain works. Right? Here we go. I said a little motivation starts the momentum to complete the mission. Yes. Right. So motivation to momentum to mission. Right in the military. We always joke false motivation is better than no motivation. A good attitude can move a mountain, not an attitude alone. You need the momentum. And you got the mission in mind. Yeah. If you're gonna go do something, do it. Tell everybody once you've done it, right. It's important that you do these three steps in order. Right? And when the world starts telling you what you can't do, I ain't got time for that, move about your business and go back to doing the thing you do. Right? You have to endure the hustle, that momentum that motivation. You have to embrace the struggle and you got to enjoy the grind. Alright, if ultimately you don't enjoy doing what you're doing, then stop doing it. Yeah. Get out of unhealthy relationships, quit that bullshit job. Stop working on that crap that your family wants you to work on, because that's what they want you to do. I met a kid recently, who's he's an all I want to do is be a cop. That's all I've ever wanted to do. But my parents are afraid and they want me go to they want me to be accountant. I mean, what are you doing? He's like, I'm going to school on my for what? For finances? I go, why are you so you want to be a cop? He goes, Yeah, but my mom and dad will kick me out if I if I go to school to be a cop. Then get kicked out.
Jaime White40:34
Right, right. What's the problem with that? Right done? Yeah, but
Andy Weins40:39
Right, well, then I gotta find out. Well, you got to get a job. Okay. Is it right? Well, start now. Hey, like, I talked about the kill zone. Right? We're not even close to our final point. But I'm talking about the kill zone, right? When you're in the kill zone, you know, you're already dead. You know that where you're spotted every direction to good direction. So for this kid, for example, it's like, well, I really don't want to go to school or be a accountant. Well, are you going to school be accountant? Yeah, yeah, well, that's a good place. Let's not do that. Okay, at this point, everything is better than that. Even if you don't want to be a cop, where even if that doesn't pan out, you know, you don't want to be an accountant. Right? So does that mean you have to drop out of school and get a full time job and get an apartment? Okay. I mean, let's think about people that get into bad marriages in there. Well, I stuck around for 20 years and 30 years and then
Jaime White41:31
Do you get a badge? Yeah. Like, what do you get?
Andy Weins41:37
Exactly. Right. Yeah. People that stick around terrible jobs for 30 years for that pension. Ah, sorry boutcha.
Jaime White41:47
All right. Awesome. Good to talk to you.
Andy Weins41:49
Appreciate you. Thanks, Jamie.