Meet the Team: Brad & Gayleen | The Real Franchise Episode 39

Justin Well, welcome everyone who’s watching this video. We’ve got some of our newest team members with us today, Brad and Gayleen And for those of you that I know, my name is Justin Kelly. And I’m one of the owners of James And I look after walking people through the process of checking James out and getting to know some of the team.

And I just took you both through that process not too long ago, I did not.

Brad Yep.

Justin Yeah. So before we get into, I guess, would you mind sharing? Where are you guys in Australia? What were you doing?

Brad Do you.

We’re in Brisbane. We’re we’re in a suburb called Karalee, just on the outside of Ipswich. Yes. And we service Karalee and the surrounding areas. Yeah. We’re a lawn and garden here.

Justin Yeah. Right. And do you have family and what? What’s that look like for you guys?

Brad We don’t we we have a big family at home here with us. We’ve got some of our kids and grandkids living here. But as far as family to go and visit around us, there’s not a lot. Actually, we’ve got quite a few in Australia, but we’re sort of spread around. You know, not everybody goes by. Yeah.

Yeah.

Justin And what made you start looking to have your own business?

Brad Making? Well, we took some time off in 2019 when we became grandparents, and, I was a truck driver before that. Yeah. And, when, when it came time to look at going back to work or to doing something with our time. Well, yeah, I just decided I didn’t want to go back, and. Yeah, the trucks and stay away and miss out on so much.

And in the five, six years that we had off, Galen’s new hobby was to go and mow everyone’s lawns. And then, that’s where the idea was given to us. And the more it got mentioned, the more it seemed like a really good idea. But we had members, we had mowers, we got we had the kit and and it was something that Gaylene loved to do.

Yeah. That made her happy.

Justin So you got dragged into it? Oh.

Brad Yeah.

Justin So what made you look at a franchise?

Brad Yeah. I just got dragged along for that. I thought we could do it on our own. And then I quickly learned that there was a lot more to it. That I had no understanding of. And I think if we had tried to go alone, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Even though we’re only in the beginning weeks.

Well, I’ve still progressed like, a lot further than I ever thought I would or knew that I could. I should say the same.

Justin Fantastic. How many weeks have you been in the business now?

Brad This is week five, coming to the end of week five.

Justin Awesome. So, literally, it was literally only a couple of months ago. We walked through the process. Yeah, but yeah, once or twice. Yeah. Fantastic. And, So. So you were in trucks. You decided to look at your own business. You went through the process, and I guess for people looking. How did you find the information process? Was it hard to get all the information?

Did you have many questions that you still weren’t sure about? How did you find the journey?

Brad You know, I didn’t realize I had as many questions as I actually did once we started researching into it. We were so green, owning business and and doing this sort of thing for a job for ourselves that I. In the beginning, I didn’t even know what I needed to ask. Yeah, but, Yeah. When when it came to comparing other franchises, I think we looked into 3 or 4.

We got the most information from the James, franchise, and, we were able to find information not just from the from yourself as well. We looked we could you’ve got a YouTube channel and we found stuff on there and loads about it, and then discovered that there’s so much more that we don’t have a clue about, like, especially marketing and stuff like that.

I’ve never had to do that before, and I don’t think I could do it, like by myself on my own. Yeah.

Justin Yeah yeah yeah. And so once you got to the end of that information process and you guys signed up and then we booked into the training, how did you find the training? So you did three days in the office for us. And I know for you, Brad, you were computers at your thing. Yeah.

Brad That was you. A lot of things I’ve ever done. Yeah. But again, I head in. He’s a legend. Yeah, yeah. He, he had constantly swap sides on the desk and sit next to me rather than be like a teacher at the front of the class. He’d come and pull his chair up beside me and here share the tablet with me and and walk me through it.

And it was, Yeah, another scary thing for me to do because I have zero experience at it. But, it turned out to be, just a repetitious thing for me. Yeah. Gayleen and Larissa they’re pretty on to work with that sort of stuff. But for me, the time I’ve got to watch them do it a couple of times and then I can repeat the steps.

I don’t say I understand everything, but if you’re showing me how to do it a couple of times, I can repeat it. Yeah, and I’m getting bored like that. It’s working out for me.

Justin Good, good. So that’s the computer side. And then. And then after that three days of that office training, you went and worked with, were you with Dylan or Marc?

Brad Oh, we had Dylan. Yeah, I met the both. Yeah, I met both, but yeah, we spent time with Dylan and he was good. Yeah, right.

Justin And he’s only just down the road from you guys at night. Similar.

Brad Yeah. He’s about five minutes away. Yeah.

Justin Beautiful.

Brad So it’s close to our house as well even as well. Yeah.

Justin So then you got to the scary of actually now you’re on your own in your business week one. You’ve got your business coach. You can call on Ian, who you mentioned. But what happened in week one for you guys?

Brad I was really scared.

Justin We were scared.

Brad Yeah. I, I was sacking it.

Justin Yeah, yeah. Me too.

Brad I remember it turned out to be such an awesome week. Like, I think we made 950 losses, although it wasn’t a lot of money, but it was also a lot of money for a week. Starting in the middle of winter.

Justin Yes, yes.

Brad Yeah, yeah. I remember waking up every morning being really nervous and worried about, meeting new people because that was outside of my comfort zone and then having to go and do the marketing and stuff. But then we would slowly get jobs and would go around to people’s houses. And then that’s when the fun started for us. It turns out getting along with strangers is quite easy.

Yeah, and you don’t really have to try hard. You just got to be yourself and be respectful of other people and like, basically just be a normal person and you and you come out fine.

Justin Yep, yep. And I hear on the grapevine that, you also get to eat all the food as well.

Brad Oh, yeah. Yeah. I’ll like, I’ll if I meet someone and I can see something that they’re interested in. If it helps me to get along with them, I’ll find things to talk about and offer to help me. But so many of our conversations end up about food, and then it leads to someone getting hungry. So it’s usually me.

Yeah. And then it just progresses from there. Okay. Customers go and order out for us. We’ve had customers cook for us. I’ve got customers that grow stuff in the garden. For me.

Justin Yeah. Fantastic. And you’re five weeks in. So. Yeah, we are. We cut down your family food budget.

Brad Yep, yep.

Gayleen Be off to the gym soon.

Justin True. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so if you, Now, you don’t have to share if you don’t feel comfortable, but income wise, you know. Yep. 950, week one. How’s it going for you guys? Just from top of your head? I know you’re the more the computer person, guy, can you recall roughly how your income’s going over the last 2 to 4, five weeks?

Brad I remember week three being told by Ian that we made 4700, and it just went.

Justin For the week so.

Brad That I didn’t know if it was good or not.

Gayleen I think our concern was, was actually getting out there and doing the work we played. I mean, yeah, money is a big part of all of this, I guess. But for us it wasn’t, it was, the connection we were trying to, create in the community for us.

Justin Yeah.

Gayleen Yeah. So the money just just came along with it, I guess. And we’re doing really well. I think we are.

Brad For a reason. I think only two weeks we’ve worked a full week because of whether or we just haven’t had jobs and we’ve spent time marketing them. We have working. But yeah, I think we’re between two and a half and three grand a week. Maybe our best week was 4700. Yeah. And but we have just been doing loans for free for five years for nothing.

So the money was never really, like, I know it makes the world go round for a lot of people, and you need it. But at the same time, for us, it was more like we need to do something rather than float along doing what we feel like. But yeah, yeah. And so the money wasn’t it at the top of the, the agenda for us.

And I really didn’t know if we were doing good or bad or good.

Gayleen We had.

Brad Didn’t matter.

Justin With.

Brad Yeah. It’s not until we don’t have any that matters. Yeah. Yeah.

Justin It’s true isn’t it? Don’t we often we in our training we talk about laws of exchange. And if you’re out there to to serve people and genuinely help people and you do that well, the money flows. You know, it’s a yeah it’s the successful exchange. Yeah. So it’s it’s so important and if we look after people we don’t put people off or whatever.

And that’s awesome okay. So the big question are you enjoying it? Are you happy you made the decision.

Gayleen Made. Yes I have I mean, we’ve made this, a family thing. Our daughter works with us as well, which is huge for us. Yes. She has, a health issues that she’s been dealing with since she was a young child. And all of a sudden, since we’ve been in this, those have disappeared. Those issues. It is it really is a big, celebration for us.

Brad Yeah, well, I didn’t expect that either. But she has epilepsy, and she’s been averaging a seizure a week. Yes, for a 20, 22 years. And, Yeah, it’s way a week. Five. And she hasn’t had one.

Justin Fantastic. Well.

Gayleen Yeah. Are you going.

Justin To.

Brad Yeah. And then on the, you know, also on the set. Yeah that. Yeah.

Gayleen She’s the first in the car yelling at us to hurry up. Yeah.

Brad But she was one of a typical kid. You know like a teenager. You got to drag them out of bed in the mornings. They skip breakfast because they’d rather sleep through it. And now waking up because we hear her telling everyone else in the house to hurry up and get up with.

Gayleen The first on the computer, checking the job. She, you know, the organizes us so yeah, I mean as a family. And that’s, one of the biggest things we got into this was family. It’s it’s great. It’s working out well. We have our other two. They are off doing their own things, but now they’re looking at us and wondering, is that why that they should come in as well?

So I think they may jump the fence next year.

Brad One of my, one of my sons and his partner, they live here with they with their daughter and our daughter Larissa, that lives here. She’s a mum, too. And, her routine of having to get up for work every day has just sorted her life out. She gets up, break. She makes breakfast for her son. She’s sometimes making lunch for us at the same time and putting it in the truck and getting us ready as well.

And I think just taking on that responsibility and having that routine in her life is, is maybe helping with the seizures. So I don’t know. But all I know is she stopped having them. And, yeah, I’m really grateful for that.

Justin That’s such so, so yeah.

Brad And now all of a sudden he’s a truck driver like me, but, he doesn’t stay away from home. He doesn’t. He doesn’t want to be like that because he saw me do it. And he swears not. That’s not going to happen. And here’s a day, too. So he wants to be here every night for for his baby.

But he may as well live in the truck because he’s gone before the sun comes up in the morning and he’s home hours after us every night, and he looks just as knackered as I do. But yeah.

Gayleen Yeah. So one of the funny stories we had just the other day was one of our kids rang up to tell us how horrible the day they were having, and us three was sitting at McDonald’s having bacon and my.

Justin I.

Gayleen Think the strangers next to us jump start their car. So yeah.

Brad We. Yeah.

Justin Good morning. Yeah. It does give you a freedom I think. Yeah. I think you guys were telling me a while ago that you often pull up at the bakery and talk to people and. Yeah, you know. Yeah. So actually talking about. Yeah, talking to people. Okay. So it comes gone. Good. But how did that magically appear? But what what sort of things did you guys do and where did the leads come from to get those jobs?

Brad It’s so it started off following the guide that and our business coach was steering us towards. We would, follow, like, I just put all my faith in him and did everything he said. And even when it was outside my comfort zone, I quit. I learned at the at the training with him that you’ve got to get outside of it and just make your zone bigger.

So I went on there and then it turns out that what he required me to do wasn’t that hard in the end. And we were actually to take it a bit further. And I found out that the more you put into it, the the more leads you’re going to get and the more jobs you’re going to get from it.

And so, he’s given me a guide that I’ve printed up for updating my Google business profile. And every day I read what it wants me to do and I decide if I’m going to do that or if I’ve got a better idea. And if I think I’ve got a better idea, I’ll run it by him and and he’ll tell me if it is or not.

And, and I can trust that he’ll he’ll steer me straight.

Gayleen Yeah. I mean, we’re actually skilled at everything, but it was. And that helped us guide that skill through.

Brad Yeah.

Gayleen So you know we didn’t know we had these skills and this shining light.

Brad I didn’t know what marketing was. And I had to learn how to do it. And but now we’ve come up with our own ideas that, working quite well. We’ve got lots of stuff going on social media. I’ve got Facebook ads, I’ve got marketplace ads. We go to car shows and we wash the truck and hook the trailer up to it, and we go pack it up at a car show, and then we just go to the bakery and buy the sandwiches and sit around and meet people at the at the local gym that Larissa goes to, the TVs above the the cycles in the treadmills are playing, pictures of L before and

afters on a loop with some James titles that even gave us that. We we used it and people see them and we’ve met a few customers that said, yeah, there’s ten minutes on the bike, and I just keep seeing you guys slide past the TV over and over. It’s the repetitiveness. It’s just got your number in my head.

I know it off, but. And you sent me. Was it 10,000 brochures? Yeah, we jumped on eBay and I found a place where I can buy thousands of, sticky magnets that you just peel them off onto the floors and we just run around and hand them out.

Gayleen And actually surprising how many of those pamphlets we are on someone’s fridge.

Justin Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s.

Gayleen Nothing metal in the house. We are on it.

Brad So it’s you can put the flier in the mailbox and someone might pick it up and hold on to it, but you stick a magnet to it and someone’s going to go, what? Can I stick it to? And I’m like, yeah, I can’t believe how many people have got my flier on their fridge.

Gayleen It feels weird. Yeah.

Brad But it works. It’s a marketing idea that. So we did.

Justin It. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anything you can do? The kitchen front of mind for people?

Brad Yeah, yeah. Even just when we go to grocery shopping or milk and bread, hook the trailer up in and pocket and a visible spot at the car park and put your uniform.

Gayleen I my my lawn and my uniform. Yeah. We’ll park the trailer. Yeah. On the road.

Brad I didn’t work yesterday or today, and I’ve had a uniform on both days, so I’ve just been wearing them. Every time I go out, I’ll put the suit on, partly because it’s some of the nicer shirts I own, but.

Because I now know that it works, that people see the name and. And they. Yeah, I know who we are.

Justin Yeah, yeah, yeah. The number of times I’ve been bailed up in Woolies over the years and people are, you know, I mean, grab a milk or something. Oh, hi. Hey, shift. And how do you clean houses? And I’m like, well, I don’t know who does. What’s your number? I’ll get them to call you. Yeah, yeah. You pick up.

Yeah.

Gayleen This morning on the way to the school run, we were driving behind the James bus. Remember?

Brad Oh, yeah. Yeah, we seen a billboard on the back of a bus.

Gayleen So there was people like this pointing at us with the trailer.

Brad Us?

Justin Yeah, very good about that.

Brad Yeah.

Justin Awesome. Well, I won’t keep you guys all day, but I guess over the last few weeks, what do you think is some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned if you were going to pass? Any tips on the people watching this? What are some of the things that you’ve learned that you’ve felt have really stood out?

Gayleen Personally for me, trust, trust. Your team trusts,

Brad Yeah. For me, it’s, I’ve learned that I didn’t have anywhere near the potential to do this on my own, that I’ve learned the the what? I’m enjoying now is thanks to Ian and the stuff that I learned with him and the training and the better stuff that I learned of Dylan. The. Yeah, how far I can take my marketing and my ideas.

Yeah. I would never have, like, comprehended the stuff that I can do on my own. Yeah. And and not only that, the, you know, wearing the James uniform, it has a bit of weight to it. People will walk up to me just because I’m wearing the shirt, also because they’ve used James before or they know someone that does.

Okay. Yeah, it has a bit power behind it and then you can wield it to get work.

Justin Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That’s awesome. Well, if if someone watching this was looking to start a James business and I haven’t slept any 20s or anything like that, what would you what would you say to them if they would wondering what to do?

Brad Oh, man. Ask every other franchise you can think of that you might like the look of, look into them, ring them up and ask them. Try and look them up on every social media platform and see how much information you can find. And if you actually get to talk to someone that’s down to help you out, see how much you can get out of them, and then compare all the information, because that’s what we did, and know that that’s ultimately why we chose the James franchise in the end, was because we got the most information that seemed to be the most forthcoming and straight up, there was nothing secretive about it, no hidden

costs or anything like that. Yeah.

Justin Yeah. Thanks. Thanks. Well, any last bits of pearls of wisdom? What? Anything that you’d like to pass on tonight?

Gayleen Personally, I wish I did this ten years ago.

Brad Yeah, yeah.

Justin Yeah, especially seeing the impact on Larissa, like, that’s just.

Brad Yeah. Who knew? Like. Oh, yeah. That wasn’t even the reason. But it’s turning out to be a really good one to keep it up because she’s just heard she’s grown up. In the last five weeks. Yeah. And they and the the amount of time that because I did this to try not to be away. It missed out on so much.

But now not only am I not missing out, but I’m also working with one of my kids and like, we’re having to tone it down on the job because we shouldn’t be laughing so hard in front of customers and stuff like that.

Justin Yeah, that’s so.

Brad And so I was. I did it earlier too. I mean, she stopped having seizures years ago. If we’d done this earlier.

Gayleen Yeah. Yeah. The, the tightness of our family since we’ve been in this. Yeah. It’s awesome I love it.

Justin Yeah. And that’s more than the money, isn’t it, Monica. Oh, that money is nothing. Yeah yeah yeah yeah I true. That’s awesome. Well, guys, thank you so much for, for being willing to do this today. I know it’s always nerve wracking getting out of the comfort zone and all that, but, you know, I would be.

Gayleen Proud I spoke.

Brad Even this. Yeah, even just doing these is a big thing. I remember called the first zoom around with you, and my hands were shaking, and then holding them. I was one hand was holding the other one under the tables because I was so nervous about talking to strangers. And now I do it for a job, and I love it.

Gayleen You do that. You’re customers.

Justin Yeah. That’s awesome. Awesome.

Hear the full chat with Brad & Gayleen below.