AC: 0:12

Hey guys, this is AC Locker here again, and this is going to be a treat for you guys. I can feel the cool tropical breezes blowing right now and the smell of pina coladas in the air. I've got Donovan Morgan with me and I guess you can see from the logo he's got on the screen here and his shirt he is from Soft Wash, Hawaii. And so, hey, Donovan, go ahead and introduce yourself, you know and where you're from there in Hawaii, and tell us a little bit about your life there on Hawaii.

Donovan: 0:45

Well, my name is Donovan Morgan. I'm from Ewa Beach, Hawaii. Grew up here in Ewa Beach when it used to just be sugarcane fields and one road in and one road out. It's progressed a bit to where there was once sugarcane to saw houses. Happily married to my best friend, I've got two wonderful daughters, six and four. So yes, I started late, but I'm enjoying life. Life's been fun, it's been challenging, I would say, from one end of the spectrum to the next. It just continues to challenge me. But you know, I guess my mother always used to say you know, you just take small steps in the right direction and you eventually get there. Sometimes they get bigger steps, sometimes smaller, but you eventually get there.

Donovan: 1:38

What else can I say?

AC: 1:43

Well, there's a lot of people know everybody.

AC: 1:46

We we interview, and on this podcast, a lot of people from the United States. Of course, why is in the United States? But it's not mainland United States, and so there's people that are probably wondering what do you do there? On Hawaii, what is, what is your day like? You know what? What are the unique things that you love about Hawaii? I know you grew up there, so it's not like you moved there later because you fell in love with Hawaii. This is where you're from. Tell us about Hawaii and what makes it so interesting for you, and tell us what you love about where you live.

Donovan: 2:16

I would say it's growing up in Hawaii. It's kind of a double-edged sword because you take a lot of things for granted.

Donovan: 2:24

I spent some time in the military. I think that's when I got the biggest um wow leaving, leaving hawaii for the first time, ending up in great lakes in the middle of winter, losing all of the, the things that you take or take for granted the warm weather, the food, the family and all of that. When I came back, I truly appreciated what I had when I left the military, came back home to live. But again you fall back into that same relaxed mode, right Hawaii mode. You start taking things for granted and I worked for Chevron USA here in Hawaii Okay, out here in Kapolei.

AC: 3:07

My father-in-law was an employee of Chevron.

Donovan: 3:14

He was a geological engineer for them, and so I got the opportunity to work for Chevron as a senior consultant in Kazakhstan, and so, once again, leaving the islands, I've traveled internationally in the Navy.

AC: 3:28

You just picked, like the two coldest places on the earth Great Lakes for boot camp. Yeah, because you must have been in the Navy if you went to the Great Lakes. Yes, yeah, and then Kazakhstan, wow, that's all the way on the eastern side of Russia, just above Mongolia.

Donovan: 3:45

Yes, and so that was one extreme to the next. It was unbelievably cold and unbelievably hot, yeah, so it only went from one inspection to the next. Wow Again working there. It was a four-week-on, four-week-off type of rotation, week on, four, week off type of rotation. But after my first pitch working there, coming home again appreciation for what you have here in Hawaii, and yes, it is beautiful. A lot of people see what's presented on TV and videos and movies. It's a bit different, I would say people from the mainland or visiting, they see what they want to see, but there's so much more and it gets so much deeper. But you've really got to get into the culture. So what are the things that they're not seeing? I would say when people, when they talk about aloha, aloha is something deeper than just the words that you hear. I tell you aloha, aloha and you see them all over time.

AC: 4:49

It's funny I was just doing I do four of these podcasts all the time. We batch them and then we release them every week, and so the person who was on the call on the podcast just before you was Jim Steinmark and he's in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and he also grew up on Hawaii, and he was saying the exact same thing that aloha. Everybody's used to saying aloha, but aloha isn't a word, it's a culture, so dive into that a little more.

Donovan: 5:15

Yeah, and so aloha can go. It can go from a happy place, it can go to a sad place, it can go to a mean place or a machine I forget. I don't know what word I'm looking for. It depends how you use it, it depends on the situation, it depends who you're talking to, how you're talking so many things, which is probably why it's such a diverse word. In Hawaii it's different, different, and everybody talks about culture. I would say one thing that I know for a fact is that when you're from Hawaii, it's funny how people still argue amongst themselves when you're in Hawaii and you're from Hawaii, but when you're outside of the state, if you run into anybody that's from Hawaii, it's like you become best friends.

AC: 6:07

Yeah, it's an instant bond.

Donovan: 6:09

You share something and you don't even have to know the person. And here's a perfect example when I first went to Kazakhstan, you had to go through an orientation. And so we're sitting in this big theater hall and they're giving their talk and somebody in the back, somewhere in the crowd, started talking and I'm like he's from hawaii. But you look back, it's just a bunch of people anyway, maybe it's just me, I'm, you know, homesick or whatever. And then the same person asked another question and just from his tone of voice, how he's talking, the words he's using, I'm like he's got a southern accent, but he's got that hawaii going on and so the vibe yeah. And so after we took a break and you just kind of go to the crowd and you're just listening, and then I find him. We're like hey, like what's the chances of running into somebody halfway around the world from hawaii? Right, and he lives, he was living in North Carolina or something like that.

AC: 7:08

Oh my goodness.

Donovan: 7:10

It's crazy, and even in the Navy you know when the ships would hit port, we'd have our little group of just people from Hawaii and everybody thought we grew up together because we were so tight-knit. But it was only because we were from Hawaii and it was different, because you'd see people, say from Texas, east Coast or whatever, and they'd say hi and shake hands, but then they'd depart In Hawaii. For some reason. We kind of just congregate and become one unit.

AC: 7:37

That's very, very cool. So I just want to say right off thank you so much for your service, for serving our country. We really appreciate that.

Donovan: 7:46

Thank you.

AC: 7:48

All right, cool. So you've grown up here in Hawaii, you've lived in Hawaii, you left for a while, be in the Navy and work for Chevron, came back and some of the jobs you've had over the years it led you to make a decision that you wanted to become an entrepreneur. Tell me about that journey. I mean, is this the first business you've owned? Have you owned other businesses? How did you get to being a business owner, being an entrepreneur?

Donovan: 8:21

I would say it was a process. I know at one point in my life I wanted to do something on my own Right. I would say, in my early years, me and a couple of friends, we tried to start an automotive, a Volkswagen repair shop. So we got into that. But we weren't business people, we were just kids trying to make money to go racing. Basically, we weren't business people, we were just kids trying to make money to go racing, basically.

Donovan: 8:46

So it worked out to pay enough. It paid enough to support the race car, but it didn't pay enough to make it a business. Yes, I would say probably early 2000s. I started a wet abrasive blasting company and it was more to take up the time that I was home four weeks on and four weeks off. What kind of company was it? Wet abrasive blasting company, and it was more to take up the time that I was home four weeks on and four weeks off. It was kind of a long. What kind of company was it? Wet abrasive blasting?

AC: 9:10

Wet abrasive, oh, wet sandblasting. Okay, yes, okay.

Donovan: 9:15

And so I started that company, got all the equipment, got it up and running. Again, here's where knowing business before you jump into it it seemed like a good idea. It seemed like a lot of people would use the service. But once we got off, once we put the capital into purchasing the equipment and the base yard and all of that, I found out that there wasn't really a demand for it and the people who were looking for it weren't looking to pay top dollar for it.

Donovan: 9:43

So, it's actually going to cost us money to do work. And so I kept that going because it was more for something for me to do when I came home on my time off. And then life happened. And so working for Chevron it's a business. I understand business and everybody's family until you become a number that doesn't kind of align with their business plan. And so you know, everybody looks to become highly paid. I was happy to be highly paid and it wasn't aligning with their business plan and so they always shaved the top a little bit and I became part of that.

Donovan: 10:17

That shaving came back home, you know, still got the sandblasting going, wasn't working out like it should. My body was telling me enough is enough, it's kind of a pretty strenuous trade. And my wife said what are you going to do? I said I don't know. One day she came up and she goes hey, go clean outside of the house. So never knew I was cleaning outside. I thought hey, should shoot some water.

Donovan: 10:46

And so went research, youtube, google, can be dangerous, it can be good or bad. Um, found out that you know soft washing terminal. Now I understand what soft washing is, but soft washing is cleaning the outside of the house. So we went, we bought the pressure washer and the chemicals and all that stuff and I'm terrible at but we made it happen. Three days later, a whole bunch of dead plants and a bunch of ruined walls. I got it done and the house came out looking pretty good. And then I guess, once you have information and knowing what you know, you start to look around and then it's like, well, it looks like the neighborhood not that far away from me would benefit from a service like this. But I knew what I didn't want. I didn't want to repeat what I had just done and so I did more research.

AC: 11:37

More research ensued right, so the first thing I needed to overcome was the calculations.

Donovan: 11:40

So the first thing I needed to overcome was the calculations. I didn't want to drive around with a big 275-gallon tote trying to figure out how much chemical I need to do this. And so I came across SoftWash Systems. So I looked in and saw the equipment. I said, hey, what's this? You know you go. And I called up and I talked to Jesse. Jesse kind of gave me more information on the equipment and then I was sold. And then I had to go back to the boss to ask for permission, because I had done my sandblasting on my own without asking him, and it didn't go where it was supposed to go. I went back, talked with the wife, explained to her well, I can buy this equipment and do what I did with the house. Explained to her well, I can buy this equipment and do what I did with the house and I could buy it in pieces. I don't have to buy it all at one time. And she kind of slowly turned around and said who are you kidding?

Donovan: 12:33

You're going to buy it all anyway. And just you know, do what you do. And so took the jump on board and that's how SoftW ash Hawaii got started and it's been. You know the push forward and the challenges, challenges and tribulations, right um, that constantly come up and down. I call it the roller coaster. You're happy one day and you're going down, you pick yourself up and just you know so.

AC: 13:01

So you know you're. You're in a unique area, for sure, and you're in a tropical. You're not even sub Florida's subtropical, you're actually in the tropics, and so you've got the ocean all the way around you. You've got the right mix of humidity, you know humidity and warm temperatures and all the things that you need there and all the things that you need there.

AC: 13:24

The big comment that you made, the reason why the wet abrasion blasting or the sandblasting I was trying to figure out what you were saying, but the sandblasting didn't work out well is because there wasn't a big demand for it. The people that did want it wanted cheap and weren't willing to pay up for it. Everything's dirty in Hawaii. I mean, it's like it's, it's, you know, like the, the, the, the state color of Hawaii should be black. I mean, I've seen some of the photos and videos and stuff that you've posted. There was, there was a difference. There was definitely a difference between the, the need and the demand. The need was definitely there in Hawaii. The demand wasn't quite there yet. And I know that as you've been building this business and working on it, because how many years in are you now? How many years have you been doing this?

Donovan: 14:15

We're a little over two and a half years now.

AC: 14:17

Yes, I knew you were getting close to three years. So you're getting close to three years on this. Even though the need was there and things were dirty, there was a significant education phase and you're still educating people.

AC: 14:31

Talk about that a little bit

Donovan: 14:33

Yes, and that's been from day one. Um, I'm not a person that likes to say we're the best things in sliced bread. I'd rather share the education of what's really going on, what's happening with your property, your roof, your siding and so forth, and I leverage my experience from Chevron. So Chevron being a multi-billion dollar company, and when I was working in Kazakhstan, that was a multi-billion dollar facility.

Donovan: 15:01

And so when you look at maintenance, something that loses production say in 30 minutes that it's like millions and millions of dollars lost if you look into it from a property perspective, dollar amounts are smaller, but the financial stress, the personal stress, all the things that come with things failing when you don't want them to or you don't think they would, can really get to a person or to a family. And so I try to leverage what knowledge I have with a preventative maintenance background and put that into what we do with soft washing. And so when we educate, it's not about okay, we can get your roof clean. This is what we're trying to prevent from happening and then also share lessons learned from industry. And then I try to gather information from people who I've worked with in the past what their current position was before they let us come in and after, and the whole emotional spectrum that goes along with it. Right For sure. So it's different.

Donovan: 16:16

In Hawaii, I would say, the average person doesn't really look at cleaning the outside of their house. That's why everything looks so dirty. They'll cut the grass, they'll trim the trees, they'll wash the car, change the oil. When it comes to the side of the house, they might spray some water.

Donovan: 16:31

When it comes to the roof, forget it.

AC: 16:34

There's no maintenance on the roof and I'm concerned about it.

Donovan: 16:36

Yeah, and so that's where the education comes is sharing with people, especially now, with insurance companies coming out and canceling policies or threatening to cancel policies. We've picked up business from that spectrum of the market which is it's good for the business but it's not good for the people coming to us.

Donovan: 16:56

It's not the type of business that we would like to get. But we're happy to help and we've taken some of those and we've created friendships with people who we've helped in that manner. We actually recently did a story with Hawaii News Now. We helped a retired veteran. His house was a little unkept. His son reached out to us for an estimate. We went out, did the estimate. His father was a little unkept. His son reached out to us for an estimate. We went out, did the estimate. His father was home. We sat down at the table, talked, story a little bit. He shared with me about what he used to do he was in the Navy, his wife and what was going on and where he got to.

Donovan: 17:37

At that point and we kind of so doing what we do. Being the entrepreneur, being the owner of a business, you can make just decisions, snap decisions, yes.

AC: 17:49

Yes In the moment.

Donovan: 17:52

Yes in the moment. As emotional as it was, I knew that this was going to be something that we had to share with the public and the purpose of it was to inform the public of what's already happening. That isn't in front, it's not in the news as it should be. Most of the people that are getting affected are getting blindsided Right.

Donovan: 18:13

And so we worked with a friend that has a PR company, worked with a representative from Hawaii News Now, and it took us a little while to put it all together, but when the story was complete and they put it on air it was just emotionally touching. I didn't expect it to hit the heartstrings but it did and the story kind of it. It helped me and it really did, and I'm hoping that it helped a lot of people to kind of build some some faith that there is, there is still goodness in the world. It's just that it's not, there's not going to be bad news all the time.

Donovan: 18:49

Yes, I think it was really a feel good moment.

AC: 18:54

So you know, I think you know, and what you're touching on there is this was a veteran and he was between a rock and hard spot because he was either going to get his insurance is either going to go up significantly or even get canceled because of his dirty roof, but he didn't have the wherewithal or the finances to take care of that cleaning. So you guys stepped in. Sometimes people, when they look at I live in a very tourism-based area, orlando Florida, and they see images of Orlando Florida and it looks beautiful and it looks clean and it looks like the streets are paved with gold, and I think people have that same vision of Hawaii is it's beautiful and it's clean. And you know they think of the beaches and all that. But I don't and I've not been to Hawaii. Now my wife tells me that we need to fix this. So I think I think she's told me I'm supposed to be coming out and doing some training with you in the future and then we need to come to Hawaii to do a, you know, an inspection of the facility, so to speak.

AC: 19:53

But I don't think people quite realize and again, I haven't been to Hawaii, but from the conversations I've had with other people the amount of poverty that's in Hawaii, that there's a huge divide. There's a lot of wealth and there's a lot of tourism, and then you can turn a corner and there's a lot of poverty too as well. So it's not like the streets are paved with gold and everybody can afford to have their house softwashed. There. There's a percentage of the people that can, but just like anywhere else. It's not like you're so privileged and it's such a blessing you're in Hawaii, because work must just fall out of the sky for you. It's not that way. Hawaii has its own struggles as well.

Donovan: 20:40

Yes, very much so. And so I would say, if you look at housing in Hawaii, I think the average median single family home you're looking between seven and nine hundred thousand, which in most states would be a pretty significant property. Right in Hawaii that's probably like a plantation, old single panel wall, you know nothing fancy at all, probably 6,000 square foot lot. So when you look at dollars compared to in the housing market, it's not significant and that's where the poverty or the challenges come with living in Hawaii. But my mom always said you got to pay the cost right to live in paradise. Right, there's a cost. They're pushing it to the limit right now. They're pushing people pretty hard.

AC: 21:30

Well, because there are a lot of people that do want to live in Hawaii and they're starting to eat up some of this, buy up some of this lower-cost housing, and it is pinching the lower class and not giving them really anywhere left to live.

Donovan: 21:45

Yes, correct, yeah. So it's frustrating sometimes, especially when you hear in the news about you know they want to build affordable housing, but when you say affordable housing it's not. You know, in the States affordable housing is affordable. In Hawaii you're looking at a $600,000, $700,000 home which is considered affordable and I don't know how people do it, but they're still purchasing.

Donovan: 22:13

Million-plus properties are still selling as fast as they can build them. They don't even build them until they sell them. I don't know how people do it, how they manage to put it all together, but they do.

AC: 22:28

You've touched on this. It's expensive to live in Hawaii. Everything has to get imported in there. There's not a lot of stuff that just comes from Hawaii even even art with our business. If you want a new skid, you got to ship it in. If you want you know chemicals, you've got to ship it in, and that adds to the cost and makes everything exponentially more expensive just because it's on the islands there.

Donovan: 22:51

Yes, forget about commercial properties. That's unbelievable. I am so jealous of the in-network companies wherein I watched them post. Oh look, we're moving into our 4,000-square-foot warehouse office space and so I'm like, oh, one day we'll get there One day. It's not going to be, you know, $2,000 a month.

AC: 23:14

Well, see that I even get micro jealous about some of the licensed affiliates because you know they'll be in parts of the country where they can get a really nice place for $1,200, $1,500 a month, and you know, it's almost double for us here in Orlando and it's probably triple that for you there in Hawaii and they're I, I'm on the constant lookout for commercial property that fits what we need to have.

Donovan: 23:41

Um, and then you know, with the business model and scaling up, going from a three truck and then starting the next branch when would I want that branch to be? But we're forward thinking. Yeah for sure we're not there yet, we're still taking the small steps, but we're working.

AC: 23:58

So how are your revenues? I know you're rounding into completing your third year in business. You said you're a little more than two and a half years. How are you doing? I mean, you don't have to give specific numbers if you're not comfortable with it, but how are you doing? Is this getting to a point where you're like man, I feel like I'm getting some wind under my wings and this is really helping me achieve my life's goals and dreams, because that's what's important.

Donovan: 24:27

I think from that perspective I haven't taken a paycheck yet, I'll put that out there but as far as revenues, we're in month eight now of 2024. We've already bypassed last year's numbers. We're looking, we're getting bigger, more interest and we're getting higher tickets, and so you know all of the. I feel that all of the hard work with the networking, with your social media, with coordinating or collaborating with the news agencies, different blogs, podcasts, and so we've done a few and everything is education and I think the more we put ourselves out there as far as education and more people learn what the positive effects are of using our service, we'll become better in both providing services and increasing our profits and helping the communities and part of the teams that we bring on board.

AC: 25:43

Yeah, people don't realize how much work it takes to start a business. And even with soft wash systems you're getting a tremendous head start that you're not having to come up with business systems and marketing systems and sales systems and HR systems and you get a lot of that stuff. But the momentum you have to create. You know you mentioned that the revenues are not quite there yet to your goal, that you feel comfortable pulling a paycheck out of the company, but your revenues are growing every year and you're in a very isolated area. You don't have the momentum of the rest of what's happening in the United States and all of a sudden people in Hawaii are like, hey, there's this thing called roof cleaning.

AC: 26:22

People say it almost feels like I'm on an island. You are on an island, you know you're having to educate people. They just didn't know that this existed. You know pressure, they know about pressure washing, but but you're really building something and and people take for granted sometimes the amount of effort, the amount of time, the amount of energy it takes to build something up.

AC: 26:44

And you're in a very unique situation, as I mentioned, because you're on an island and you're isolated and except for, maybe, what people might see on TV or on the internet, they wouldn't necessarily know that this is important. So you're really having to work to build this thing. And when we talk about building a lifestyle business, this wasn't just sign me up and bam, it's turnkey. I mean, I just talked to Jim Steinmark and he was like, yeah, I mean it was almost turnkey for me. You know the first year was kind of rough because the first year was COVID, but you know we're doing really well. You're really having to go in there and it's not for the light of heart, for sure to go in there and and, and it's not for the light of heart, for sure.

Donovan: 27:31

It's where some people ask me why, why I do what I do. I said, well, what I'm trying to do is be first to market. I'm right, I know I've watched a whole bunch of, you know, marketing videos and trainings and say don't get into something where there is no market right and so work. There are people that do what we do more as a side hustle than a mainstream. Yes, we're, we're, we are trying to be first to market. And so when people think of cleaning the exterior of their house, that soft wash away comes up and we're trying to be that omnipresence type of company, but one that we hope you think we'll help you. We'll help you. So, about you, we'll help you. Sorry about that. We'll help you take care of your property. That just threw me off. So we'll help you take care of your property.

AC: 28:15

We'll try to be first to market and get everybody to think about you know, Softwash Hawaii first.

Donovan: 28:21

But then also that we're a company that takes care of the community. It's kind of more than just having our services and taking care of our customers. I would say part of our mission is to help the communities that we're working in, and I've always wanted to do that. But they say you can't do that unless you take care of yourself. So first I've got to be able to take care of myself and my family. Once I'm there, right, and I can take that next step and do what I've always wanted to do. It's kind of work with the community.

SoftWash Systems Announcer: 28:52

You've heard AC Lockyer talk the talk, but wouldn't you like to see him walk the walk? Now is your chance, and it's absolutely free. Spend the day exploring soft wash systems and disruptor manufacturing. On Friday, September 27th, you'll see the business and marketing systems developed by AC at work. But no open house is complete without food, so be sure to stick around for lunch. To register for this free open house event, please call 855-763-8669. We look forward to seeing you on Friday, September 27.

AC: 29:36

For sure. So, when you look at what the future holds, this podcast is building the lifestyle business. Where do you see this soft washing business that you've gotten into? Where do you see it in three years, five years, 10 years? And how is this going to play into you building your legacy and raising your daughters and supporting your family and also, too, like you mentioned, the community? Let's start moving from what. What does the future hold? Now for SoftWash Hawaii.

Donovan: 30:11

I would say SoftWash Hawaii is just the first step. It's a big learning step. What I think is pretty cool is that my daughters are already seeing what I'm doing. Right, they see the work ethic. They don't understand why daddy's always working and why daddy can't go travel with them here or there. But my oldest is always okay, let's go hand out flyers, let's go do this. Can we go drive around in a truck? Can I help you go do this? When I'm doing business stuff on the computer, daddy, what are you doing? And so these are things that when I was growing up I never had any type of school. So I'm trying to expose my daughters to things that you don't learn in school. It's stuff that you would learn at home from your parents, that you can have now.

Donovan: 30:59

With Softwash Hawaii, once we get on model and we get to the point where we're scaling, then it's as you always mentioned, it's just repeating. So I feel that we can repeat to start the next branch. But we can also repeat and move into other potential businesses that would support soft washing businesses, maybe landscaping, maybe we can, you know now into the the tax side of it, breaking up the company. Okay, we're going to have a company that just leases. This is the company that will lease the equipment, that'll get soft wash Hawaii soft wash, sure, and and kind of build from there, but in the bigger spectrum, to share with my family business what it means to be business and potentially build a network of friends. Right, you are who you hang around with.

AC: 31:52

It is yes, yes.

Donovan: 31:53

And so our network of friends is very small, and that's the reason because we want to keep it small, because we want to be around certain types of people that both influence ourselves. We potentially influence them as well, but my children are able to grasp and absorb information and experiences that put them. I guess everybody wants their children to become better than they were. I don't want to give them everything on a silver platter and appreciate the learning process and the gifts that come with it.

Donovan: 32:29

And so that's my long-term goal and the legacy I want to leave behind. I joke about it with my wife and my friend I'm late in the game. I know I should have done this a long time ago, which is become an entrepreneur and start a business and go through the learning process. But because you're so comfortable with that that drug they call salary just enough. And so it's like well, if I leave, then I lose all of this. And then I got to do something else. I got to, I got to figure it out Well, they're paying me enough. I would not want my daughters to go through that, or my wife. And so here we are. We kind of push through it every day. You take the roller coaster ride. You enjoy the highs, you don't like the lows, but you make the best of the lows to turn them into highs and bottom, kind of like surfing. You bottom turn, you go back up, yep.

AC: 33:28

Now you drop two very, very important golden nuggets or knowledge bombs in there, things that people really need to pay attention to. Daddy, what are you doing? Daddy? Let's go throw flyers together.

AC: 33:41

Okay, you are weaving your business into your family and so many people in Western culture would say you shouldn't mix business and family and blah, blah, blah and everything else. But it's created a touch point, an interaction point with your kids for you to teach them a work ethic, for you to teach them stick-to-itiveness, for you to teach them how to market, how to present themselves, how to carry themselves, how to speak, and so it's almost like business homeschool, you know. And that's so important because I remember when my son went to business school at Abilene Christian University, you know he would come back and you know, come home for holidays and stuff like that and go Dad, I feel like I could get up and teach the classes. I feel like my business professors. You know, they're all smart people, but they're really book smart. They haven't really been in a business, and so he was able to mix the university curriculum with the homeschool curriculum. He got in business and that's now he's working in the family business and building disruptor manufacturing, and so that was number one you being able to show your kids that this is how you develop a work ethic. And then, number two, that legacy aspect of being able to build something that will take care of your family, that they don't have to go out and get a J-O-B, they don't have to get downsized one day like you did, that if they decide to become entrepreneurs themselves or take over the family business, that they'll be more in control of their destiny, and they'll have a taste for that, even if they don't take over Softwash Hawaii one day.

AC: 35:30

They've had a taste now of how you lived, and you said it we always want our kids to have a better life than we did. Well, they're going to watch what you did with your business, owning your lifestyle business and they're going to say, man, I want to be like my daddy, I want to own my own lifestyle business, or I want to marry a guy that we can run a lifestyle business together one day and then not be a slave. Now you can be a slave to your business too, and Howard Partridge talks about that all the time. You want to get away from being a slave to your business, but also, too, you don't want to be a slave to a boss one day. I mean, people can have a good job and have a good employer, but very, very few people are blessed with that.

AC: 36:15

The people who work for me, they love working for me because I'm an easy guy to work for and I support them and I love them and we have a good culture and everything else. But not everybody gets to enjoy that. Not everybody gets to be an entrepreneur. They're not an entrepreneur, they're an intrapreneur. They may work for a company, but they get to work on it and build it. And you know they don't want to sign their name to the personal guarantees for all the trucks, but they want to be able to get a benefit of working hard in the business that they grow up. They're going to have a taste for that and maybe not have to just go get a J-O-B one day. Yeah, that's the goal. Yeah, that's the goal for sure. And also too and everybody really pay attention to this because Donovan, you know, is how old are you now, Donovan?

Donovan: 37:13

I am 55.

AC: 37:14

55. I'm turning 55 in September, so we're the same age and so, even though we're in our 50s, we are very social business not socialized business, but a social driven business and that we want our businesses to have impacts on the community. We want to provide jobs, we want to help people make their lives better, we want to respect the environment and all, and you've spoke of that. You want SoftWash Hawaii to be part of the solution there in Hawaii, not part of the problem. Yes, so that's cool. So that's cool, well, ok, so what would be your parting words. If you, if you gave them to somebody that was looking at getting into soft washing with soft wash systems, what would you say to them?

Donovan: 38:11

I would say first of all, do your homework, do your research and really do it. Research and really do it. Don't just say you did it, and what you'll find is that I'll share what my experience was and why I made my decision to go with soft wash systems. The equipment was there, it was proven, it constantly gets improved on, it's very straightforward and easy to learn and to teach. More importantly, that was very important to me because I knew I didn't want to end up being the owner-operator. I wanted to be. What's that word we use where you step away and you watch the business do its duties?

AC: 38:52

Oh, just owner-investor. The five stages of business development yes, yeah,

Donovan: 38:56

There you go, and so that's what I was looking for.

Donovan: 38:59

And then calling up and at that time, talking to Jesse, the information that was given there was no sales pitch, it was just I had questions, he had answers, he shared a little bit more than what I had asked, but it just supported the question that I was looking for an answer for. And after making the decision, going through the first training coming up I know you're not, you weren't supposed to purchase the equipment until you went to the training I purchased it before I went to the training. It was that good, yeah, training. I purchased it before I went to the training. It was that good, yeah.

Donovan: 39:35

And I would say, ever since that point, every training that I've been to um, the online training, the, the facebook, the support from the in-network companies, um, it's just amazing. I mean there's a lot. There's a lot out there. When you, when you start looking at soft washing or pressure washing, all of that stuff, and there's a lot of misinformation I look at. I don't just say misinformation just because I don't believe it, it's because it's things that I've actually physically done in the field where you watch a video, oh, you have to do this and you already know what's going to happen if you didn't know, and so you know. Having, I would say having a network that you can, you know, confidently rely on is why I decided to go with and stay with Softwatch Systems. I would never go with any other companies.

Donovan: 40:31

And I'm not afraid you know as much as we're investing go with any other companies, and I'm not afraid you know as much as we're investing in creating a market in Hawaii with what I have available to me today. I'm not afraid of other companies trying to come in and do what we do because we make it look that easy. And I've had a couple of people try to catch a ride. They see me and they talk sorry, I want to do this. And next thing, you know, they're trying to buy equipment to do what we're doing. Six months later they're asking me to buy their equipment. But I don't need that. It's not what I have. It won't support what I have. It actually makes me look worse.

Donovan: 41:09

Yes, I would say do your homework first. Don't take my word for it or what I'm saying here. Do your research, make some phone calls, reach out to people, reach out to people in the network, reach out to people who are not in the network. Ask the same questions and see what answers you get. Right. Pretty sure you'd end up with Compare and contrast for sure. Yes, and that's huge, but in those simple words. That's why I would continue to move forward with SoftWash Systems.

AC: 41:37

Well, thank you for that. We appreciate you. We appreciate you trusting us to help you get into the business and support you along the way, and we're proud to have you on board for sure. All right, thank you, cool, all right, awesome.

AC: 41:52

Well, hey guys, listen, like Donovan said, you know, if you're interested in getting into a business, becoming an entrepreneur you don't know what it could possibly be you can come on down to an open house for Discover SoftWash and visit with us down here in Orlando, Florida, and kick the tires and see if joining the SoftWash revolution with SoftWash Systems is something that you may want to do. Again, this isn't meant to be an infomercial for SoftWash Systems. We're profiling some of our licensed affiliates in our network so that you guys can see the effort and the decisions and the things that they're doing to build their lifestyle business, but they are building it with the vehicle of SoftWash Systems. So if that's interesting to you, check us out softwashsystems. com. And, as always, thank you so much for visiting our podcast. If you liked this, go ahead and click like and share here and share the podcast. Go ahead and subscribe to it as well, so that you can get more of our podcast and, as always go forth and prosper and we'll see you at the next Building a Lifestyle Business.