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All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.

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This is Veterans Radio.

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Welcome to Veterans Radio.

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I am Jim Fausone.

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I'm the officer of the deck today.

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We've got some great programs for you.

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I think you'll find very interesting.

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We always want to remind you you can find more about Veterans Radio at its Facebook site

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or at the web.

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VeteransRadio.org is our new URL, VeteransRadio.org.

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Where we're on the web 24-7, you can find a lot of our podcasts there as well.

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We post new ones every Tuesday, so you can get a new story, a new interview, something

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you didn't know before by going to VeteransRadio.org.

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And before we get started, we want to thank our sponsors.

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First up, we want to thank National Veteran Business Development Council, NVBDC.org.

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It was established to certify both service disabled and veteran owned businesses.

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You'll find out how they can help your business by going to NVBDC.org.

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We want to thank Legal Help for Veterans.

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Legal Help for Veterans fights for veterans disability rights all across the nation.

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You can reach them at 800-693-4800 or on the web at LegalHelpForVeterans.com.

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We want to welcome to VeteransRadio today Steve White, US Army Infantry Officer.

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We're going to talk a little bit about that, but he's also had a long and successful career

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in the franchise world.

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So we want to talk about franchising and its value to veterans and some of his current

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involvements.

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Steve, welcome to VeteransRadio.

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Thank you, Jim.

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Thanks for inviting me today.

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I always love to talk about my military experience, but even more so all the wonderful franchise

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I've worked with along the way who were also military veterans.

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Well, one of the things we were talking before we started, you are what's known as a UPER.

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You may have to explain that to some people, but you went to Northern Michigan University

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and an ROTC scholarship, and that's how you get yourself into the US Army.

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So let's start with where did you grow up and what is a UPER?

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Okay, that's great.

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So Michigan has two peninsulas, the lower peninsula and the upper peninsula.

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And the upper peninsula over the years was referred to as the UP, and then over the years

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that got contracted down to UPER.

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So if you're from the upper peninsula or UP, you're designated a UPER.

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And oh, by the way, we also have a term for people born in the lower peninsula.

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I knew where this was going.

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Two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinaw Bridge, the mighty Mackinaw Bridge.

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To us, UPERs, the people who live in the lower peninsula below the bridge, therefore refer

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to them as trolls.

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And I am a troll, so yeah.

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I knew where that was going.

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So Steve, you did ROTC to get yourself through school.

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You got one of those really important degrees like political science major.

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But the Army said you're ours for a while and you served six years, I believe it is,

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1980 to 1986.

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Tell us a little bit about your time in the Army.

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It was pretty amazing actually because I, you know, the Army scholarship was my ticket

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to school because my family is a wonderful family, but my parents couldn't afford a college

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education back in the day.

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And I got the scholarship from the Army, which enabled me to go to school at Northern Michigan

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in my hometown.

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And it was fantastic.

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But it was kind of a goofball in college.

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I mean, I had a lot of fun in college.

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I worked hard at my studies, but you know, I knew where I was going when I graduated.

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And so, you know, I had some lofty aspirations to be something like a military intelligence

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officer or something.

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And the Army branched me infantry.

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And so I didn't know what that meant.

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And off I go to Fort Benning, Georgia at the beginning of 1980.

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I got commissioned my college graduation in December 79.

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And I go off to Fort Benning, Georgia and lo and behold, the Army scraped an off crud

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off of the outside of me to find a responsible adult inside that I didn't even know was here.

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The family didn't recognize.

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Yes, right.

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And it went on to be, turns out I went on to be really good at it.

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Who knew?

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And so I loved, I loved what I did.

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I love leading soldiers.

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I love what I did for my country.

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I would have, I would have done it probably.

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My dad was in the Army National Guard in the Michigan Art National Guard.

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And he was my hero.

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And if I wouldn't have got the scholarship, I would have probably found some other way

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to serve.

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But it worked out great for me.

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And I rose quickly, pretty quickly through the ranks.

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I was promoted to first lieutenant and the captain, head of the curve back in the day.

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And it was really, really good for me.

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But I knew at the six year mark or so, as much as I loved it, as good as I was at it,

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I knew that where I really wanted to do was business in my career.

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And the head hunters had come calling early on back in my day, if you're, if you're a

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good army officer, the head hunters would come all the way to Europe.

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So I, you know, I spent over, over three years of my six years in service for spent in Germany.

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So, you know, I went to initial training for bedding, then I went to Germany for third

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armor division back to bedding, then off to Fort Carson, Colorado, fourth infantry division.

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And that's where I finished.

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And then while I was gone, my parents had moved to Ann Arbor and they were both working

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at the University of Michigan.

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And so I decided to come back.

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And before I went with the big time head hunter, I'd take a look around.

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And I mean, less than a, less than 30 days after I took off that camouflage uniform,

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I had two offers, two opportunities, one in the University of Michigan hospital and one

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across town at this company that was built in a headquarters called Domino's Pizza.

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That's the one I took.

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And that was 38 years ago.

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I cannot believe it.

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And it really has, it really sent the trajectory of your life because you've stayed in franchising

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ever since at Domino's for a number of years and onto Allegra Network, which some folks

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might know as Signs Now.

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And now coming out of retirement, if you will, to Pure Clean.

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But let's talk about the, the allure, the fit between franchising and veterans.

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There's something there, isn't there?

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There are 100% is, there are 100% is, and it's been my passion.

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And you know, as, as a franchise company, we're part of the International Franchise

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Association and they have a big initiative for veterans called Vet Fran.

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And that's been my passion work for almost 20 years there.

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But it is giving me a view, a broad view of franchising beyond the companies that I've

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been in and I've been able to see how military veterans can plug it in.

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And I would say this, when I came out of the army, having listened to the headhunters that

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were trying to get me to leave the army and go into business, they told me about how my

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skills would apply.

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I get into franchising and my first boss said, none of the things that you learned in the

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military will apply to business.

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You're going to have to learn everything over from scratch.

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You would have said the same thing if you were right out of college.

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You would have said the same thing.

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Nothing you learned in college is going to apply here.

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And they were 100% wrong.

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Everything I learned in the military applied to business, leadership, training, following

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systems, you know, problem solving, accomplishing the mission, doing everything with a, with

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a heart to serve.

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All of those things applied in incredibly important ways to my business career.

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And let me back up here too, because I made a joke about your undergraduate degree in

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political science, but I did so because I read a quote from you in military, military.com

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where you said, I knew almost nothing about business when I started.

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And I think sometimes we get afraid to take the first step because go, well, I'm not an

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expert like that guy over there.

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Tell us about that transition.

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Well, that transition for me was, was, was really good.

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I think I had the benefit of a couple of things.

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I read a, I read a couple of books back in the day about just about, um, there were some

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guys who had written some marketing books based on military principles and it just flipped

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all the switches for me.

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But more so talking to these recruiters, they were trying to get me out.

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They knew what they were talking about, right?

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And so all of those skills that I learned applied really well.

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And they, you know, especially to franchising more than normal business.

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Why?

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Because every franchise company is a system with a set of systems, right?

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I don't care if you're making a McDonald's quarter pounder or if you are engaged in the,

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in the science of, of helping somebody restore their home after it's been flooded like we

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do at Pyrrhiclean, we all have systems to follow.

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And one of the most important things you learn in the military is to follow a system.

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We call it SOP, Standard Operating Procedures in the military, but it's a system and we

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learn how to follow systems.

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And so it's, it's every franchise is one.

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The military veterans come into a franchise, they recognize the system, they follow the

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system and the system takes us, takes them to great success.

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Well, the other thing I think you learn particularly in the infantry and the army, but I think

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I'll crust all the services.

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You got to work it.

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You got to work hard.

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You got to work when you're tired.

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You got to work every day.

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You got to get up and, you know, maybe somebody's yelling at you to get up, but you got to

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get up and move.

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And to be a successful businessman in a franchise, that's part of the secret sauce, isn't it?

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It absolutely is.

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Most military veterans come with a really strong work ethic, right?

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And Pyrrhiclean, my company is, we are owned by two investors, Mark Davis and Frank Tory,

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and they're both like that.

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Frank in particular talks about every day I get out of bed, first thing I do is kick

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my own butt and get moving into life, right?

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And Frank, well, Frank is actually the son of a military veteran.

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His dad served in the Marine Corps in World War II in a famous unit called Carlson's

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Raiders.

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And so I think his dad instilled in that in him early on.

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And it's, you got, you're right.

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You got to do the work.

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You get up every day.

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You got to do the work.

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I think that's true in anything.

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And franchising, if you apply the work to a system, you get big success.

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And many franchise, you mentioned Vet Fran, but many franchises, there's a cost to buy

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in.

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Explain to folks how you get involved in a franchise and what help might be available.

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Yeah.

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So for example, if somebody is interested in Pyrrhiclean, they can come to pyrhiclean.com

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and that's our general website.

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But if you're interested in it as a franchise business, you go to pyrhicleanfranchise.com

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and there are all these great resources that talk to you about that.

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We're really drilled on down into veterans as well.

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So you can go to pyrovac.com, no spaces or anything like that.

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And it's specifically structured for military veterans.

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But it's about, you know, every franchise comes with an investment, right?

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Because every franchise in the world, a lot of people don't know this.

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Every franchise in the world is independently owned and operated business.

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And I've got 465 pyroclean franchises today across the United States and Canada.

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And they're all independently owned and operated businesses.

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So it's a wonderful thing to investigate that opportunity.

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And I think it's a really important thing because one of the things that we're trying

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to do, Jim, is that as you look at service members leaving active duty service, the military

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branches do things like interview skills and resume writing skills.

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Those are skills to get a job.

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They don't do anything to help you understand how you can own your own business.

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If you come into something like pyrovac.com and look at it, it tells you how you can own

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your own business and live anywhere you want.

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You want to go back to your hometown, you want to stay where you left the military, whatever.

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There's some franchise opportunity where you can own your own business, but yet still be

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part of a major brand and part of a system.

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And there's always a franchise fee.

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And you know, you've got, in our case, you've got a buy a truck and equipment.

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But we are already ranked as one of the most low-cost franchise opportunities somebody

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can get into.

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And then in addition to that, we're also ranked in the top 10 most military veteran-friendly

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franchises in America.

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Wow, that's great to hear.

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And I should explain that PuroClean is a leader in property emergency services that's helping

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families and businesses overcome setbacks caused by water, fire, mold, other, you know,

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damage conditions.

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So it's really a response and restore kind of rescue operation.

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Tell us the type of person who gets drawn into this type of franchise, if you will,

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Steve.

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So, you know, Jim, I don't know if it is our business model attracts people with a big

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heart or once you get into our business model, it conditions you to have a big heart.

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But we're, I have the most amazing set of franchisees I've ever worked with in my long

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career.

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And I think it's they, it's not the nature of the work they do, because every single

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day something bad happens to someone where they work or where they live, right?

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Just as you just said, water, fire, mold, damage, whatever it is.

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And PuroClean, you know, after the plumber turns off the busted pipe or out of the fire,

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PuroClean's the next thing on scene to start putting life back together for those people.

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So my franchisees, I tease them sometimes that they have Superman syndrome, not in terms

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of invincibility or the ability to fly, but in terms of flying to the rescue of poor people

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who just had something bad happen to them, it's what they do every day.

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And it attracts these people with this big heart to serve.

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And so one more reason why it's so good for military veterans is because we go from having

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a heart to serve our country to having a heart to serve our local community, not in a way

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with weapons, but in a way with tools to help people recover from something bad that's

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happened to them.

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And, and I think one of the things for PuroClean's part two is that every day is different, right?

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Every emergency, every problem is different.

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And there are some folks who like consistent routine.

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If I want my domino pizza, I want it to be, taste exactly the same as the last one did.

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But here, every day, every call is going to send me in a new direction.

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And again, I think there are certain types of veterans who, that was the experience they

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had and what gave them the adrenaline rush to get up and go every day.

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Yeah, you know, at PuroClean, we don't want you as the business owner to be on the truck

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for very long.

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We get it if when you first starting the business and you're small and, you know, and, you know,

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especially if you're coming in at a low investment cost and you've got the basics to get started

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in business, that's awesome.

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We've had lots of people coming at the basics and go on to create generational wealth for

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their family.

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But, but we don't want you behind that wheel of the truck for very long.

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We want you to be the team leader.

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We want to get you up over the top of that business and build a significant enterprise.

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So you know, when I first came to this business in 2013, when I was first recruited to this

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position, I was the company was the was much smaller because the franchisees were much

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smaller.

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And we've worked really hard during my tenure to and mark and Frank's ownership to grow

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the individual franchisees we already have.

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And they are now almost four times the size on an average basis that they were when I

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entered the business.

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And so we've had a lot of success with people starting hands on, but then lifting them up

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to build a team and you know, our military veterans would be familiar with this.

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Our philosophy is we'll help you to build the team and then let that team build your

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business.

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And it's really amazing when we get to that level and see them and how it changes their

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life.

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And as you've grown the size of these franchisees, give us some sense of how many employees

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they might have, is this just a family business or something more and talk about territory.

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I think that's something that veterans would be interested in understanding as well.

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Well, in terms of size, the average franchisees probably get 10 or 20 employees.

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That's the average one certainly have much bigger than average.

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And so that's that's kind of a rough size.

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You can go super huge.

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You know, the beautiful thing about franchising is you do it to the level of your comfort.

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You know, I have people, I have a franchisee last year that did over $20 million in sales.

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He has a huge, huge team.

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And I also have franchise owners who get in a comfort zone like less than a million dollars

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a year and they don't want to grow a lot more than that.

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Well, at the end of the day, I'm here to support them, right?

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We're a servant leadership model and we're here to support them to accomplish their goals.

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If they've got an amazing lifestyle at a million dollars a year in revenue and they're

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super happy about that, then I kind of got to live with that and support that and be

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happy with it.

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So at the end of the day, it's got to be about helping these French as these accomplish their

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goals for what they want to do.

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And you know, we're here to serve, train, support, lead, empower them to get there.

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Talk about territory a little bit because again, this is kind of a unique aspect of

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franchising.

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Every business actually has a service territory.

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They may not know it is defined as such, but there really is.

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There really is.

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In restoration, property restoration, generally speaking, territories are defined by population

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because you can go to the very detailed insurance databases for covered losses in previous years.

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And it's all, everything's broken down by population.

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And so we've looked at other metrics in the past, but the one that always rises up as

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the number one is population and work.

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So we settled on that years and years ago.

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And when I came to the company, the company was granting a territory of 100,000 in population,

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which is plenty to be successful.

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That's probably high for the industry standard, but it's plenty to be successful.

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I really felt strongly that the franchisees need a little bit more elbow room.

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So we have, we've around those territories, we've wrapped what we call a halo, so we're

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a buffer zone between where I can put in another franchise of an additional 150,000 people.

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So they, instead of a market area of 100,000, they're start coming out the door with a market

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area of like 250,000 in population.

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And that's plenty of room to build a very large business.

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And that's worked really, really well for us in our business.

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Well, it gives you customer base, but it also gives you advertising coverage, which is one

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of those things that franchising does for you that as an independent business is tough

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to do.

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But before we wrap this up, Steve, give, be a little reflective here as you think about

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your long career in franchising and your career in the military.

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Do you see that there's sort of a correlation if I hadn't done that initially, maybe I wouldn't

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be where I am today?

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Oh yeah, absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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Hard work, discipline, stick into it, focus on the mission, always with a heart to serve,

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building teams.

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I'm telling you so, so many of those things, Jim, that I got in the military, served me

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so well today.

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And I see how well they're serving our franchisees, right?

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And we have a broad spectrum of military veterans.

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I mean, I've got, I got a guy who's still active in the air guard as a crew chief on

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C-130s.

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All the way up to, I've got colonels, I've got a retired Brigadier General as one of

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my franchise owners.

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And so, you know, they are all an example every single day about how all those things

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that we learned in the military apply so incredibly well to this pure clean business.

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Well we'd certainly encourage those veterans who maybe have been out for a while looking

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for something that, you know, maybe they're tired being the employee, they want to be

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the employers.

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Maybe they found out that they like something different every day to look at franchising

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and look at pure clean.

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Give us that website that they can go to, to drill down at your company.

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You can come to pureovet.com or you can come to pureovet.com.

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They both talked to you about the pure clean franchise opportunity, but the pureovet.com

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really drills down a little bit more specifically for military veterans.

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Well we're glad that former US Army infantry officer Steve White, affectionately a Uper

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and CEO of Pure Clean, a COO and President I should say of Pure Clean, had some time

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to talk to Veterans Radio today.

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Steve we really appreciate it.

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Jim thank you so much and as I find out I just want to say thank you and express my

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gratitude to all my brothers and sisters who served and especially all my brothers and

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sisters who serve currently today in Pure Clean.

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And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today.

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I am Jim Fawcone.

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It's been a pleasure to be your host.

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I'm a Veterans Disability Lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans and you can reach us at

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800-6934800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web.

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You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio

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shows by visiting us at veteransradio.org.

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That's veteransradio.org.

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And until next time, you are dismissed.

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If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for

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Veterans at 1-800-6934800.

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They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

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Their number again, 1-800-6934800.

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We again want to thank our national sponsors, the National Veterans Business Development

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Council, NVBDC.org, VA Ann Arbor Health Care System, the Vietnam Veterans of America,

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Charles S. Kells Chapter, Ann Arbor, Michigan, VFW, Graf, O'Hara Post, 423 Ann Arbor, and

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the American Legion Press Corn Post, 46 also in Ann Arbor.

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We appreciate all your support.

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You can go to veteransradio.net, click on the sponsor level and continue to support keeping

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Veterans Radio on the air.

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And until next time, you are dismissed.