Entrepreneurship with Jeff McCallum (#42) — Transcript
Updated: Oct 26
THE PICTURE OF WEALTH · EPISODE 42
Dustin Serviss speaks with Jeff McCallum about entrepreneurship, lifestyle and the realities of starting companies. They explore showing up, personal growth and the role of honest conversation.
Listen to the episode
This transcript was generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability. It may contain transcription or speaker-attribution errors. Refer to the recording for exact wording.
Chapters
[00:00:35] Introducing Jeff McCallum
[00:05:54] Finding an entrepreneurial path
[00:08:43] The book and the carpet-cleaning business
[00:11:17] Seeing an opportunity in water damage
[00:27:51] Ambition and family life
[00:35:31] Building ABK and NorHaz
[00:42:30] Stepping away from daily operations
[00:52:19] The decision to sell
[00:54:04] Closing a chapter after the sale
[00:56:51] Jeff’s picture of wealth
Guest & resources
Related episodes
Transcript
[00:00:01] Show announcer: On this week's episode of the Picture of Wealth, Dustin sits down with successful entrepreneur, Jeffrey McCallum, to talk about wealth and lifestyle.
[00:00:10] Jeff McCallum: You know, I always knew that wealth, for example, could bring lifestyle.
[00:00:14] Show announcer: What it means to show up for yourself.
[00:00:17] Jeff McCallum: But when you're starting a company, you better answer the phone, you better show up, you better be dressed to the nines.
[00:00:23] Show announcer: And the importance of a conversational therapy.
[00:00:26] Jeff McCallum: Conversation therapy is huge.
[00:00:28] Show announcer: So make sure to tune in and catch all this and more. Start living more of your life now.
[00:00:35] Dustin Serviss: I am, I'm excited to have you on the podcast today, Jeff. I really have been waiting for this for a long time. You and I brainstormed a lot about podcasts and the ideas, and and finally, we're sitting here getting going on this journey. And, you know, the thing that I find fascinating about your story is, well, first and foremost, thank you for coming on the show today.
[00:00:56] Jeff McCallum: Hey. Hey. You're welcome. I'm I'm enthusiastic, invigorated, all the above, man.
[00:01:01] Dustin Serviss: Well, I know that, there's there's a nugget or two for for somebody somewhere in this next hour. I don't know where it is, but I know we're gonna have a number of them. And when I was thinking about this podcast before, you know, the term serial entrepreneur is thrown around and you read books about it and you hear videos, all this person's on... But you really never know what these people get into. And, you know, just because someone starts five businesses, are they really successful? And, you know, what does that mean for their life and their family? So we're gonna go on a journey to hear a little bit about your,
[00:01:35] Dustin Serviss: you know, different ventures that you have and or had. And, you know, more importantly, what what has got you excited right now? Like, on your desk and, you know, people might not be able to see this, the podcast, but it's a collection of ideas and inspiration behind you that I can see. But what what's currently on your mind, at at your stage right now?
[00:01:58] Jeff McCallum: Well, funny you say that. So I try to explain to people Clubhouse, this new app. Okay. And they think I'm nuts. And a matter of fact, I just got back from the Vancouver Island for two weeks. And while I was there, I was attached to my app, so to speak. And with the Clubhouse app, if nobody knows what that is, is basically, you know, talking on stage on any niche you want. You can't see people, but it's international as well. You can't see people, but you go into these rooms, lounges, if if you will, and you can speak on anything you want. And somebody is usually moderating. The one I picked was our mindset dot US. K.
[00:02:39] Jeff McCallum: And it's by Manny Fernandez. So I'm pumped. I've been in that thing for, last few... About a month. It is... It's been a game changer for me.
[00:02:48] Dustin Serviss: What are you getting out of it? Like, you're a student and you've taught and you've consumed multiple courses, but what does Manny give you? Or what what is... Well, you know, it's actually...
[00:03:00] Jeff McCallum: You know, it's interesting. I... I've always been a type... I'm I'm I'm a human resources guy first and foremost. It always... It felt like that for me. It's like I'm not a technical guy. You want something technical, I'll I'll sub it out. But I know people. I feel I know people. You know, when you walk into a room and you meet somebody, you... It's not that you're judging them, but you just know if they've got something going on or if they, you know... You notice like networking. But I've always prided myself in conversation therapy. And what does that mean? Well, I need to talk it out, and I know a lot of entrepreneurs need to talk it out.
[00:03:38] Jeff McCallum: Anytime I... You know, when I did a rotary speech once, I had a couple invites for lunch, and I was just always blown away at, you know, how candid these people were with their information after you just give a little speech on... I... It was on bookkeeping, accounting, and wealth manager, how they should all be talking. Similar to the situation I had with you and MBA and, you know, I love that whole... But it's... Conversation therapy is huge. And nobody... You can't, you know, drop five, ten, even two grand on a consultant when you're a small business owner or any entrepreneur. Some entrepreneurs, like, I have a bit of a coach.
[00:04:17] Jeff McCallum: I can get into that later. But, I never had that when I was, you know, taking off. So... Yeah.
[00:04:24] Dustin Serviss: You got this this this clubhouse is, is cranking out info and, like, you are somebody that consumes a lot of podcasts, a lot, reads a lot, you know, loves music. You're able to sort of take in a lot of information, and distill it. How are you... How do you distill down what the good stuff is, what stuff you wanna use, and not, you know, not just sort of overconsuming just for consuming? Because you you do... You know, and we're gonna talk about the businesses you've built. You obviously pulled the right nuggets out to get to these businesses that have, you know, bought, sold, and, you know, parlayed to different things.
[00:05:06] Dustin Serviss: So is there a is there a process or is there a thought path or or just as natural?
[00:05:14] Jeff McCallum: Well, I I... You know, the more I'm on this Clubhouse and meeting people, what I consider my tribe, the more I get on Clubhouse, the more I realize the people that are on these, especially in our mindset app. You know, the more I meet these people, the more I realize that, yeah, there's... Everybody's there for a reason because they all have a burning desire. So me growing up was... I never was... Not that I was never satisfied, but I guess I I was never satisfied. You know? Yeah. When I worked up, I had... Life was, you know, I I... My dad was navy. He was a no nonsense guy. Everything was black and white.
[00:05:54] Jeff McCallum: I went up to Fort Nelson, and I worked in a gas plant. I did not like any of that work. It was boring to me. Well Right. You know, you get... And and then you're listening to half of the people talk about some of the, guys that didn't like their jobs, their their wives, their houses, nothing. It's like that old, I think it was Jim Rohn that said, you know, one day you wake up and you drive in the car you don't wanna drive. You're in the job you don't wanna have. So I was lucky to sort of kick my own butt back then and say, I wanna do something different. I mean, yeah. Anyway, this whole,
[00:06:35] Jeff McCallum: the burning desire came early, and I think the first book I read was Tony Robbins. No. It was Cassette. There it is. I'll never forget that. And...
[00:06:43] Dustin Serviss: So now people know a little bit of how old you are. So that's,
[00:06:46] Jeff McCallum: Yeah. Cassettes. Right? And and and no kidding. And and that was a game changer for me. It's like, oh, you can do this. As a matter of fact, when I left the North, I came to my brother's place in Penticton for just a three month stint. And when I was there, he had a vision board on his fridge, and then his wife. And he gave me a book. It was, Wayne Dyer, Pulling Your Own Strings.
[00:07:07] Dustin Serviss: Okay.
[00:07:07] Jeff McCallum: And he had another one in there. And and that's kinda where that self help, hey, You know, when you know inside, you've got this burning desire to do something big or... You know, I always knew that wealth, for example, could bring lifestyle because you're fed that through TV and... Right. You know? But then also, it... That... I don't know what it is. I think sometimes you're born with it, sometimes you're not. Like, you get some people in the room of this, mindset room and and they're trying to figure out what it's... You know, they want to be an entrepreneur. I think you can...
[00:07:42] Jeff McCallum: I could study to play the cello and do my ten thousand hours and probably be a pretty good cello player, but am I gonna really... Is it gonna be my thing? What if the cello breaks once and I'm in the orchestra? You know, am I gonna freak out? Right? Whereas an entrepreneur, if you're not willing to get up at three in the morning and... Not willing. If you... You know, I always say you're not an entrepreneur until you try to make payroll in your head at three in the morning. Yeah. You know? And and and you just swim. Right? It just swims in your head. But
[00:08:12] Dustin Serviss: yeah. So you... You've got this, this desire for something, and I I think it's important to sort of back up that, you know, there was the carpet cleaning business. There was a book. I I think... The book.... Because I'm just fresh off written a book. I I wanna hear the book stuffy again, personally. So if anyone else can put it on hold, but this is a good book. The
[00:08:34] Jeff McCallum: book story?
[00:08:35] Dustin Serviss: The book story of
[00:08:37] Jeff McCallum: Oh, of a hundred and one hundred and one reasons, that one?
[00:08:41] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. So what's the title of the book that you wrote?
[00:08:43] Jeff McCallum: Okay. It's called, Bob Burnham and Jeff McCallum, and it would... I co wrote it with Bob. Bob, by the way, was a huge influence in my life. I gotta say that. A hundred and one reasons why you must write a book, how to make a six figure income by writing and publishing your own book. And this book came about from Bob and I. So when I got into a franchise in carpet cleaning in Victoria, the first year I was in Victoria, that's when I met Bob. I bought a franchise from Started one year in there and moved to Summerland after one year at Victoria because my brother was into it in Kelowna as well.
[00:09:23] Jeff McCallum: And in that time, we formed a relationship as franchiser, franchisee. And as, you know, some of the franchises, franchisees took off type of thing, and Bob sort of scaled it down because he was a advertising executive from Toronto who thought, you know, I'm gonna put a carpet cleaning business together in the eighties when nobody had that business. Right? I mean, think about this. He said he had, locations in... Back in... I'll never forget this. Like, back in, like, Newfoundland or Saint John's, and the guy had five locations. Well, those were those, like, cleaning machines. Vonage cleaning machines. Right.
[00:10:00] Jeff McCallum: He says in in eighty six, he bought six of those truck mounts... Truck mounted units. Game changer. All of a sudden, you could do carpet cleaning for thirty nine ninety five, which they used to advertise back then. Right? So him and I him and I, like, just over the years, that was two thousand six. We wrote this book together. It took... You know, it wasn't just, hey. We're gonna write a book. It was in the nineties, we got to know each other. So ninety one, I moved to Summerland, started, carpet cleaning. Did carpet cleaning for one year, kinda two, and then got into the fire and flood restoration. Heavy. Why? Because that's where the...
[00:10:37] Jeff McCallum: You know, that was niched, and that's where the money was. You gotta follow the money. Right? Carpet cleaning was good, but, actually, I'll never forget in Victoria. I was only there one year, and that's when... Never forget this. That's, I was... I lived on the, border of Richmond and Foul Bay or Oak Bay and Foul Bay. And Oak Bay, of course, is, you know, nicer area. It's the nicest part of Victoria. You've got the uplands and so forth, but it flooded. Not only did it flood that winter, it was the coldest winter for years. The GST... I'll never forget. GST was introduced and the Kuwait war started. I remember all these weird, you know...
[00:11:17] Jeff McCallum: But why I bring that up was that was, like, I saw all this water, all this flooding, and I had one call to extract a basement. And I thought, this is pretty cool. Extracting, you know, because I have a truckload. Well, I got on the phone and I phoned, I bet you, a dozen property management companies. And I... Back then, I had the numeric pager. That was it. I think they were coming in with the alphanumeric, but that thing just, you know, it vibrated off the hook, if you will. And, I made more money that weekend extracting. I literally walked into these apartment buildings where there... That... It was pretty bad. And here's another thing.
[00:11:58] Jeff McCallum: My brother-in-law came to visit me that weekend, and he... Out of my three or four brother in laws, I think three of them have done floods with me over the years. They just... They they end up visiting me in the Okanagan and they end up on the job site. Right? Yeah. But sure, that... I made more money that weekend. And I thought, wow. This is cool. And after the winter, I moved to Summerland. And then Bob and I, you know, we dabbled. It was actually went from Success carpet cleaning to Success restorations. And then we changed it to a first in the, phone book. And back in yellow pages work, and then the b was for Burnham. Right?
[00:12:37] Jeff McCallum: So, anyway, we cranked out the hits. I mean, hey. Anytime I had a flood, I thought, wow. I get to eat again. But, from that, you know, what what was really interesting is Bob is an avid reader, and I'm I'm, I call myself an enthusiast about everything. You know, you want me to get enthusiastic about something, I'll do it because I'm just pumped. Right? I I read a lot of stuff as well. We did some mastermind calls. I'll never forget when we basically get up at five and hide in my solarium to make these mastermind calls with, a couple guys in the US. And we actually found that mastermind through, Nightingale Conant.
[00:13:16] Jeff McCallum: So have you heard about Earl Nightingale? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. K. He's, like, the first guy that ever sold platinum or something on vinyl of self help. Matter of fact, I still have his cassette series here called Lead the Field. Unbelievable. If you've never heard Earl Nightingale, you better get on it. But anyway, yeah. From all that material and the masterminds and stuff, man, it just... We... I wasn't sure what other business did we do before that. Oh, we started dabbling. What happened was self help, we ended up on a lot of different seminars in the US on marketing. And we're always like...
[00:13:54] Jeff McCallum: Because when you read all these books, you're you're motivated. And and you're motivated to... You know, Bob had the he was... Bob's always been an entrepreneur, so we're feeding off each other. Matter of fact, he could get a book. I could buy the same book. He'd have it done, you know, well in advance. I wouldn't even have to read the book because we would sit and talk about the book and he would pull the nuggets out. I mean, it's the same thing as I used to subscribe to Success Magazine. I still do. I get the magazine, but no CD in it. Okay? Back then, you get a CD with the... And I I subscribe to book summaries with Success Magazine.
[00:14:31] Jeff McCallum: And I still have, like, I don't know. You put a CD in, it would summarize the book for you. Just think about most books. There's great information in it, and then there's fluff around it.
[00:14:43] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:14:43] Jeff McCallum: And I I don't wanna be little like, you know, my thought on Robert Kiyosaki, his series, and... Well, his first stuff. Or even, David Chilton from Wealthy Barber. What was he all about? First thing that comes to your mind from David Chilton, Wealthy Barber, that book Ten percent. Save save ten percent. And then the rest of the book is what? So we're thinking, You know, and then we attempted... We went to so many different seminars too. I'll never forget. You get to these seminars and you see people get religion, and they run to the back of the room, like, literally gallop. Yeah. And they buy books, CDs, and...
[00:15:22] Dustin Serviss: Not for courses, the weekend retreat, all the stuff. You know?
[00:15:25] Jeff McCallum: Yeah. So...
[00:15:25] Dustin Serviss: And don't talk. So you're... In your book, you you you noticed a niche.
[00:15:32] Jeff McCallum: Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's where... That's... Well, we we learned... What we learned along the way was we had gone to a few online, not like seminars for online sales. Right? So the guys like Russell Brunson, I don't know if you've heard of him, you know, Alex Mandosian. These are people... These guys are all, you know, Frank Kern. Actually, I'll never forget Frank Kern. He he was a Georgian boy, and he had cowboy boots and sideburns and everything. And and he wrote a a book called... I forget this. How to Teach a Parrot to Talk. And back then, you could search and optimize it. You you...
[00:16:13] Jeff McCallum: Search engine optimization was a lot easier back then. Right? And we were learning, you know, SEO stuff way back when. I'll never forget. Then he said he would... He was telling us on stage how much, you know, he sold. Anyway, fast forward to Frank Kernow. He lives in La Jolla, drives Rolls Royces, and he figured it out. I think he had some tax problems, but that's another issue. Yeah. And so... Sorry. I digress. But, there's so much in there. So many there's so many gems in there. Like, we probably put together, you know, ten, fifteen different websites just to figure out search engine optimization.
[00:16:49] Jeff McCallum: So between the SEO and learning online stuff, that's where the book came from. So the title, hundred one reasons why you must write a book, was, you know, keyword driven, if you will. So this book was... And it's not even perfect. If you if you look at the editing, there's a hundred and seven reasons, by the way. There's six bonus. And and then the last quarter of the book is, like, you know, I I would I would compare the last part of the book to, Tim Ferris's four hour
[00:17:21] Dustin Serviss: book. I got a list.
[00:17:22] Jeff McCallum: A list. You know, where to go, book distributors, you know, pod printers, publishers, anything like free... Now it's called freelance. I mean, I can look at some of the older stuff and I go, wow. This stuff...
[00:17:33] Dustin Serviss: When when was it written?
[00:17:35] Jeff McCallum: Like the copy... Two thousand six. Two thousand six. Yeah. And it... So it took years to get there. It was sort of years in the making. And then we put another one out called, two thousand and twelve, and it was called Change One Belief. And by the way, that hundred and one reasons, like, I'm not sure it is. Two thousand six. So we we had John... No. We didn't go to John Assaraf till two thousand eight. But, you know, John Assaraf from the secret, we ended up going to his place. I went to his place for a business seminar. K? Get this story. This is interesting. So we get there and and one of the guys that we had met...
[00:18:16] Dustin Serviss: The the backstory for anyone who doesn't know, the book The Secret came out in probably about that time and it was...
[00:18:22] Jeff McCallum: Yeah. It came out. I... It it was after o eight. It was
[00:18:25] Dustin Serviss: after o eight. So the the the premise is, you know, if you wanna set intention, you wanna make a million dollars, write a check for a million dollars and, like, put it on your ceiling so every night you lay in bed and look at it. Yeah. I got it. You got one of those?
[00:18:42] Jeff McCallum: I I gotta actually clean... I gotta re... I'm wrong on that timeline. You know what? No. It was two thousand four because that was the year I went to John's. Okay. That's right. So that... And that was be... Just before he did it. So I... Anyway, k.
[00:19:00] Dustin Serviss: So tell us what... So John Azarath,
[00:19:03] Jeff McCallum: I think... Yeah. So here was... He was a game
[00:19:04] Dustin Serviss: changer together.
[00:19:06] Jeff McCallum: Well, he was... It was interesting. So we had this, we had it booked. It was August, I believe. And we go down there and I thought it was a, you know, business center. So we get into his houses, thirty people or something, forty. And that's gonna be the setting for three days. So we get there and we're learning yoga and breathing techniques. And I'm like, okay. We're gonna be doing this, are we? And then he started getting into the mindset of business and I thought, well, I like this. Right? And he had a speaker come in, and the speaker was Daniel a... Daniel Amen. Amen? Or...
[00:19:41] Jeff McCallum: He's a guy on PBS that sells the books, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. K. Why? Because he's got brain scan clinics in California up the Pacific coast. Right? Like, Oregon and stuff. He's a fascinating guy. Like... What was his name again? Daniel Amen. Amen. K. Amen. Yeah. He's got the book Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. But he's got he's got several books since then. But... So we met him. He talked a lot about the brain and plasticity and, you know, don't let your kids, you know, hit it... Hit their head with a soccer ball, that kind of stuff. Right? Talks about it being a joke.
[00:20:14] Jeff McCallum: But the whole thing was so Saturday, that Saturday night after we... Let me back up a bit. So we're in this seminar, and he's talking about, you know, mindset. And I thought, wow. I love this stuff. And I actually knew I was in the right... That was the first seminar that I'd gone to that really affected me and I really... You know, after doing mastermind with these guys for about a year, we met one one of the guys from New York came as well in Metasir, and he was this as seen on TV guy. Like, he he was one of the... He does... Seriously. Because, Nightingale Conant set it up. It was a lot of fun. So with, John's, what blew me away was,
[00:20:55] Jeff McCallum: you know, by the end of Saturday... I think it was Saturday. We ended up going to this beat down La Jolla theater. I call it that because it seemed like an older theater. And we watched the movie, What the Bleak Do We Know. And What the Bleak Do We Know is I almost find it a little better than The Secret because to see those both together would be good. Because The Secret is really good on the quads. Steinlight. But he really taught me about, I guess, quantum physics. And I was kinda... I don't know if I... You know you know, back then, when you threw anything around, like, energy or Uniphysics. Want. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:21:35] Jeff McCallum: People think you're, you know, kooky. Right? But, I mean, really what they're talking about is the law of attraction. And, of course, we know how that works. It's like, you know, I'll never forget. I wanted to buy a red Intrepid thinking that was gonna be my business card. And next thing you know, I'm looking at, you know, all week, I see red Intrepids or I see Intrepids and then, oh, yeah. Do you think that thing's gonna be in my driveway by the end of the week? Yep. Yeah. Right? That's how it works. Right? And so so we went to the theater, saw that show. That blew me away, what the bleeps, you know.
[00:22:04] Jeff McCallum: It's kinda more of an animated how, you know, mindset works. And I thought, wow. So that was a game changer for me, that that seminar. I mean, John did a a testimony for one of our books. So, anyway, two years after that, we put one hundred and one reasons why you must write a book. And I think as well, so John has a book called Having It All. You know? K. His story is... Anyway, I won't get into his story, but he...
[00:22:33] Dustin Serviss: So what happened with the books? Yeah. What did they sell? Or did they... Did you search engine optimize it? Or...
[00:22:39] Jeff McCallum: What we did... What was fascinating about back then was Amazon was coming on, you know, Amazon. You put it on Amazon. This is a beautiful thing. EBooks were a big deal back then. They were just starting to come out. And from what what I remember is, well, the biggest thing with Amazon is you did not have to stockpile your basement with two thousand books. Right. You know, you could order a hundred books, and they would stockpile. Like, it it was perfect. Right? So it did well, the title. But what we did was we... You don't just put it on Amazon and go, okay. Sit around and wait for it to sell. You you go out and you push it. So
[00:23:22] Jeff McCallum: Bob did a lot of college courses and stuff down in Vancouver. You know, this was a little bit later on, but one of the ways to push it was to, you know, teach people how to write and publish and so forth. And on a... What do you call those, college night courses or whatever. K. And he he would funnel those. He couldn't sell, but he would funnel those into strategy sessions. Okay? And everyone was... Some people wanna write a book. Some people have a book already. They don't know what to do. Some people, you know... And it was only nonfiction we wanted because it was all drip... Title driven. You know? Right. Be the be the best or whatever.
[00:24:01] Jeff McCallum: You have to be... You know, it has to... And it was just a bit... It's a business card for you, and that's what we recognized. So we took it. I remember being on one seminar in, Coquitlam, and I'll never forget seeing people light up When you're talking with them, you just see, you know, they they moments for these people. Just little things. It's even like... I'll just digress for a second into Clubhouse. One thing I do notice is what you've... You know, things that you know from your experience in life and when you're talking on stage in in Clubhouse, for example, to, you know, a hundred and thirty people or whatever it is, you
[00:24:41] Jeff McCallum: you sorta undersell yourself a little bit because you think everybody knows what you know. Mhmm. And it's not the case. You know more than you you think, and it's kinda nice to share that. And I I don't know why I brought that up. I guess I guess it... When I I I guess the part where, you know, you see people in the audience go, this is cool. I like this. I like that. You you don't think you have that kind of power. In fact, you do. We won't get into the power of influence. Right. But anyway...
[00:25:08] Dustin Serviss: You got you got business leadership, all across your resume, and and people wanna work with you. And so I'm I'm not surprised at at how that is... It feels. You know, may... So...
[00:25:22] Jeff McCallum: But but let me let me just finish that one thing that when I was in the seminar, okay, I'll never forget going out into the lobby, Bob and I, and people there in the classroom. And then I was almost giddy because I was thinking, wow. This is all made up. We made this all up. It's all made up.
[00:25:39] Dustin Serviss: Think about
[00:25:41] Jeff McCallum: it. Somebody tell you that... Was there people there that... Were there naysayers? Oh, yeah. I could never really talk to anyone at the back end about any of this stuff because they go, you... What are you? Cuckoo?
[00:25:50] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:25:50] Jeff McCallum: I mean, that's just go just go to work, feed your family. Well, I was. But anyway, I just... It's... You know, it is all made up and that's... So anyway, book did really well. And and then the other one came out two thousand twelve, Change One Belief. And...
[00:26:06] Dustin Serviss: And, and all the while you were building, for the yellow pages, a b k, restoration.
[00:26:13] Jeff McCallum: Well, which... Yeah. A b
[00:26:15] Dustin Serviss: k was always...... Fire.
[00:26:17] Jeff McCallum: Fire restoration. Yeah. Fire and flood restoration, and it always... It was a vehicle for me. It always did well. It always... It grew. Every year, it grew. And with that came... You know, as it got bigger, I was I was wearing too many hats. Yeah. You know, I was trying to be involved in this book business, and it was supposed to be a side thing. And Bob did a lot of the work in it because that was his full time gig. And I was busy. This thing was off the rails busy. So I needed, you know, a level of management, I suppose. And my second oldest son, Jeffrey, came in after five years business school, and he jumped in and never looked back.
[00:27:00] Jeff McCallum: He helped me. I mean, I probably would have quit the business ten years ago if it wasn't for my kids because, you know, Byron... Yeah.
[00:27:07] Dustin Serviss: There's there's two places I I go there, but I I think you bring up, a good segue to something. So, I I know both of you, your kids, and and then your other kids as well. So, we're all about, you know, that thirty to forty five years old and, hard charging, you know, business minded, grow, Think about back to you when you were thirty five and then kind of live the two lives that you live now, now being out of the business and then the hard charging then and realizing. Because our... You know, some of the listeners are doing well financially. Their businesses are successful, and so that's that's happening.
[00:27:51] Dustin Serviss: It isn't like people are living startup zone, although some people are, but they're saying, hey. Is this it? Like, I'm I'm making good money, but I've used always revenue as my marker. And it's, you know, it's at the sacrifice of family and, you know, I gotta work tonight because I gotta work weekends and I gotta increase. But, really, as someone who's older than than me or or, you know, most of the audience, what what does older Jeff, you know, say to to to the younger folk? But so I'm taking a long time to ask the question, but I wanna set it up right because I don't get the impression that you've
[00:28:32] Dustin Serviss: just given up everything and said, oh, lucky I didn't burn out, and you've retired because you haven't. But how do you maintain that drive, but then realize you need balance and then find peace in laying off the gas or a different gas pedal. Does that kinda make sense?
[00:28:53] Jeff McCallum: Yeah. I I I... There's a couple of things in there. It's like, first of all, what do you say to younger crowd or even to my age back then? It's, boy, that's a tough one because I can't say lib... You know, don't use me as an example. Because when I was building ABK, I was ferociously into this other stuff, thinking there was bigger, better, stronger, faster. I'm always thinking that. Right? Yeah. That... Hence, the book business. And then there was the the franchise company that Bob and I... You know, carpet cleaning and painting franchise business we put together. You know, that's actually... So it doesn't... Yeah.
[00:29:28] Jeff McCallum: So the thirty year olds, like, you know, I I will say though is a lot of people don't stay at one thing long enough. That's the problem. Like, sometimes if, you know... Or I... I've been... I'll say this lightly, but, you know, you gotta do your passion, but that's not always gonna work, man. Forget your path. No. I'm serious. If you... I don't I don't know the situation you're in, but if you got kids, hunker down, make the money, and then do your side hustle. Don't even really like that word side hustle, but it's out there. It's a good book, by the way, side hustle. Get your cake.
[00:30:00] Dustin Serviss: It's trying to it's trying to distill down when you get a family, you've been grooming and and wired your brain a certain way. And a family introduces a whole new set of parameters and deep social pressure of what's important on the ladder. And some people would argue
[00:30:21] Jeff McCallum: you need to
[00:30:21] Dustin Serviss: put food on the table, so that's the highest priority. Other people would say family first. So, you know, well, if you're family first and you got no income, then that doesn't work either. So, you know, I do see with with a number of the older clients that I do have, I do see situations where, you know, they've got you know, four million dollars in the bank. They're sixty four, and they got absolute dog shit relationships with their adult children because they never they never sort of paid attention. So then the question is, you know, well, what if you only had two point five million in the bank, which was enough to sustain you for the
[00:30:58] Dustin Serviss: rest of your life and serve out your lifestyle, but then you could have, you know, taken the odd Saturday off. You know, it... And it... It's... There's no way to know factually if that's right or wrong. But what would... Again, I I love asking older people with a bit more wisdom and a little bit more battle scars. You know, am I that naive to think like that?
[00:31:22] Jeff McCallum: Well, actually, you know, it's interesting too. I was thinking if times have changed to a degree, everything has become much more expensive, and you need two incomes. Mhmm. So, you know, for most couples, it's pretty tough to see everybody out there. You know, some some of the employees, I'll use those or even my kids to find... You know, to get a place. It's tough. My boys have done... You know, everyone in my... My kids have all done well. Timing was everything. Just like... So back then, it was a little bit easier to make money. But, you know, I was lucky enough that I was always into balance, and I always preach that to myself. Balance.
[00:31:56] Jeff McCallum: Balance. Now I probably could've, you know, I just say shut it down, but, well, I'm fifty nine, so I'm not shutting it down. Anyway, I I guess the big thing is I always spent time with them. You know? So example, I'd get home six, seven. I would make sure that I tuck the kids in, read them a book, and spend time. On the weekends, I would play cars with the boys. I was always there, and then I do pay... You know, I do phone calls till ten. I always say to my wife, do you think I should phone anyone after ten? You know? And then... And between ten and twelve and one, I would do paperwork. I learned how to do the books. And the books were by...
[00:32:32] Jeff McCallum: You know? So I, you know, it all depends on your drive, man. And I don't know. Like, I think you... You're born with a drive or you're not born. You... You're born with a... There... There's so much in there. Like, if you're... Like a... Like I was saying on Clubhouse, you get the people that wanna be entrepreneurs or they're not sure they're an entrepreneur. They don't have... You know, you can sort of tell the ones that aren't entrepreneurs because they talk like they just read a book. Whereas you need to have that sort of... You gotta learn self... Like like, learn something, put it into action, learn something, put it into action.
[00:33:13] Jeff McCallum: I'm lucky that, listen, I... It just... And I don't know if all the books that I've read and the mindset that I've con... Constantly had, but I know one thing. And, I don't get caught in negative thought traps. You know? I... You always... I always have a blind spot I'm looking at. It's not... That blind spot is I'm aware of what I'm saying to people when I'm around them. I want the best for them. I I have the best of intention, and I exude that. I like to think that. I'm in a grocery store. How are you today? I'm perfect. They don't even know how to respond to that. Mhmm.
[00:33:51] Dustin Serviss: And
[00:33:51] Jeff McCallum: it's not a it's not a... It was... It started, I suppose, as a fake it till you make it.
[00:33:56] Dustin Serviss: Mhmm.
[00:33:56] Jeff McCallum: I'm just trying to, I'm trying to dissect a little bit of my success. And I I know for a fact that when you put out the best, you get the best in every situation. And one of the quotes I live by is, would you rather be right or successful? And Yeah. And what I would... Right? And and you can... And you look at that, it's like, how many people do you know wanna draw the line in the sand when they're talking? It's a waste of time. And, of course, I say this quote, and then I'm on the traffic... I'm on traffic coming from Vancouver the other day ready to, you know, you know, yeah. I'd rather be right. I'd rather be ahead of you.
[00:34:35] Jeff McCallum: But anyway, you know, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah. It's... So it's not... I'm not perfect, but I just know that all this information and all the great people that have been in my... Like, Bob and I would take a book, chew them up. We'd go to these seminars and subconsciously, I was absorbing all this stuff all the time, positive stuff. Do I, you know, I... Yeah. I I watch the news. People go, don't watch the news. I watch international news. I love BBC and... Is it Alzeria? I... Alz... Alzera? Zero? Yeah. Okay. Why? Because it gives you a bigger picture of what's out there.
[00:35:08] Jeff McCallum: And even Clubhouse, I've noticed, man, I'm getting educated on, African politics. Some of these guys that come on wanna run for president. These people that are on Clubhouse are, you know, guys that have made it. They're wealthy, and they... Their mindsets are completely, you know... So anyway, man, I don't know where I'm going with that, but I'm not sure.
[00:35:31] Dustin Serviss: I'm gonna bring I'm gonna bring you back to, the lifestyle that you have. And, you know, I wanna zero in on ABK and NorHaz, which were your two primary businesses at the the kinda latest part of your your life, and those were two, you know, successful things. And I think we're kind of got now a great foundation of why they were successful. But all that positivity, like, when when you coach other leaders or for some business owners that that I coach, I'll say to them, you know, yeah, maybe you don't have, you know, tons of money in the bank, but at the same time, you got a great cash generating business.
[00:36:09] Dustin Serviss: So instead of maybe making, you know, or saving two hundred thousand at the end of the year, maybe you could save one hundred and fifty left in your company at the end and pay an extra fifty for a new staff member or incentivize three managers to become up to the next level and take, you know, maybe take Friday off. And, you know, the the pushback that I get is, like, oh, well, you know, how would that look? You know, restoration is not a blue collar business, but it's also not a white collar. So I would love to know how you put systems in place or what systems you put in place to keep the ship going profitably, to allow you to do other
[00:36:52] Dustin Serviss: endeavors and hang out with your wife, Julie, and and and your kids and and help them with their businesses, or or work with them so they could help you with yours. But Yeah.
[00:37:03] Jeff McCallum: I I
[00:37:03] Dustin Serviss: you get where I'm going.
[00:37:04] Jeff McCallum: Yeah. I I I totally get it. And I I think back while you're talking about this. I think back, wow. You know, you... As an entrepreneur, you're wearing several hats. So in the fire and flood restoration insurance industry, you're always thinking twelve steps ahead. So for example, missus Jones has a flood. You're six steps ahead of her, six steps ahead of the adjuster. You're always thinking, what's next? What's next? What's next? That mindset has always helped me, plus I don't... I obsess on certain things. And one thing I obsess on is, you know, this is... You know, if somebody phones my company, it better be a human that answers it.
[00:37:45] Jeff McCallum: They better answer it right away. Because if I miss one job, it's thousands of dollars, not just, you know, trinket money. Right? Mhmm. And that helped me a lot. Uniforms helped me a lot. You know? Mhmm. I always wanted this... You know, we've all read the book, The E Myth by Michael Gerber.
[00:38:02] Dustin Serviss: Yep.
[00:38:02] Jeff McCallum: And if if you get what I know now about business in terms of limited companies and trust and all that, when, you know, it... When you look at... Forget all that. That comes later. But when you're starting a company, you better answer the phone. You better show up. You better be dressed to the nines so that people cannot give you... You know, can't judge you. They're gonna judge you. They're gonna go, wow. That guy is, you know... You know, back to when, you know, the juggling of hats. It... I'll never forget my first employee. Miles Milletto, first guy. And I thought, wow. This guy can help me out. You get the hoses out of the truck. Awesome.
[00:38:42] Jeff McCallum: And then it went to two trucks. And then when I bought, you know, I'll never forget Bob and Russ, we got this cube van with twelve fans in it, some dehumidifiers, and a red toolbox. The red toolbox, by the way, the red toolbox was actually a carpet repair because I had taken carpet, stretching and and carpet repair course. I'll never forget driving that cube van around going. People say, Jeff, you busy? I go, yeah. Meanwhile, all the equipment's still in the back of the truck. But but regardless, getting... So moving along here with with, you know... So when you get a taste of employees... And I've always been a people person.
[00:39:20] Jeff McCallum: You know, I owned a taxi when I was young and... Like, eighteen or... Or no. Let's see. I was twenty two or something. I was trying my hand at everything. And when I bought that taxi, I noticed you pick up people that are, downtrodden, for example, or they're drunk because you're taking people to the bar or whatever. And you had to talk at them. Couldn't talk with them. That's kinda where it all started. I've always been a conversationalist like my dad. Right? And I know for a fact that, definitely, you know, one employee to the next to the next to the next. I know that hours and hours of talking to people, like employees. Hours.
[00:40:00] Jeff McCallum: How are you today? How are you doing? What can I do to help you? You know? Let's move ahead. And when you mentioned money, I'm just fast forwarding this a little bit. Anytime I could sort of reinvest, I would. You know? Yeah. I bought a nice couple nice things along the way, but always reinvest. For example, why wouldn't I buy three more fans? DHEMs. Every time a piece of equipment went out, I jumped for joy. You know, when you have hundreds of pieces of equipment out there and you're making, you know, twenty five up to hundred and twenty, that's pretty cool. Right? Mhmm. Those are little ATMs.
[00:40:31] Jeff McCallum: And And if you don't figure that out, you know... And you're right about it not being blue or white collar. It is the weirdest business on the planet because you're dealing with... Yep. Claims are rolling in every day, and they're traumatized people. You know? Mhmm. That training that we used to do with the people is, you know, stand three feet back from the door, you know, ask to park in the driveway. And they're just like, yeah. You can park in the driveway, but that perception stuff. And that's where the universe came in. But anyhow, once I got a taste of...
[00:41:00] Dustin Serviss: My my question... Circle back.
[00:41:03] Jeff McCallum: I'm gonna I'm gonna... So once I got a taste of employee... Always what they could do to help the company, it just took off from there. Then I could focus on things like, okay. We... Remember we had a goal once, so twenty thousand a week. You know? Or... Yeah. Twenty thousand a week. And now if I did that, the place would be shut down, and that's gonna be a couple hundred. Right? But I'll never forget that when when Lindsay and I sat down and we were gonna do this. And it's... You're hanging on by the... You know, on a thread sometimes because the bank's going... You know, when you have insurance, receivables, they're not paying you.
[00:41:37] Jeff McCallum: They'll pay when they're good and ready. And the bank's like, well, I don't know if we could extend it, Jeff, you know, your line of credit because I got people that... You know, I have sub trades to pay and so forth. Right? Anyway, it... I'm telling you, man, if... Once you get... It took years to get there. And knowing what I know now, it... You could do it a lot faster, but it depend on what the business is. You know? Yeah. You know what
[00:42:02] Dustin Serviss: I say?... Was an element of leverage.
[00:42:05] Jeff McCallum: Keeping
[00:42:06] Dustin Serviss: the employees happy to then help you again. You mentioned the epiphany moment you had where it was like, I need... I'm gonna burn out. And most entrepreneurs can live in what we call the burn zone for longer than the average person. That's what makes them successful. But if not tended to, can be some major mental health issues in the future.
[00:42:30] Jeff McCallum: Yeah. I believe... Like, I was kidding when I said, you know, half kidding. But let me just say something. When I remember, you know, when when I went to Europe on a holiday, for a long time, it was, like, three weeks or a month or something, I realized that, wow, you know, it's all come together, and I can actually be away and not have to worry. Mhmm. And even then, if couple of trips where I take two weeks to Mexico or whatever, I would think, wow. This is pretty cool. You get a little taste of freedom lifestyle. You you start to understand. So you work harder at putting those... That infrastructure in place. You know?
[00:43:11] Jeff McCallum: And and you don't you're not always gonna have enough people either, because you can't have, you know, somebody that's an estimator when you're a smaller company, for example. They they have to wear three hats because you... To have everyone for every department, you go broke. But, yeah. No. I... Man, I'll tell you that is is that's part of leadership, isn't it? Hanging out with the right people and being open to criticism and being open to new ideas and not, you know... I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm known for, you know, walk into the shop. It's gotta be clean and tight, and, you know, trucks are gotta be so...
[00:43:48] Jeff McCallum: You've wore your uniform, this kind of stuff. Right? I'm known for harping, but I'm also known for... I'm approachable about, you know, anytime. That's huge. And I know that that was part of my success. And then you're right about the burnout factor. You know, you... When, Jeffrey came in to the company, we had talked a lot when he was in university, and it was really good that he could come back to this hometown and he met a local gal. And he's... He... It's worked out for him. You know, he's got a great lifestyle now because, he also invested, in Norhas with us, you know, that company. And so when the company sold, he was also part of that.
[00:44:29] Jeff McCallum: Now he is actually head of Norhas, vice president, which is interesting because he was running ABK for all those years. But, you know, the the burnout thing for me was you're absolutely right about that. Like, even owning the companies and worrying about the companies. I knew that, like, god, last year or like, year before, we needed another level of executive. We just needed it. That was the whole idea behind the reason to sell is because you can't stop a good thing. Mhmm. You know? You you gotta recognize... And and I was getting a little bit, like, I I was was literally doing nothing in the company except maybe putting out the odd fire and
[00:45:13] Jeff McCallum: doing marketing stuff. Right? And you just, yeah, it just worked out. Oh, by the way, Byron got involved, and I I think that...
[00:45:22] Dustin Serviss: This is your other... I'm a little...
[00:45:23] Jeff McCallum: Yeah. I'm a I'm a little guilty bringing Byron in because, I'll never forget he, you know, worked at the Diamond Mine there and got a... Had a great experience and came to Summerland. And I remember sitting down, having a coffee with him or whatever, and we started talking about separating the asbestos removal from restoration. Because that... You know, you wanna talk about a difficult business. I mean, yeah, that is... Okay. So what we did is we sat down. He did the logo out. We're sitting here writing the logo out. And so we had this... I I I wanted him involved somehow, and I... If I...
[00:45:57] Jeff McCallum: If he was gonna get involved, he'd have to have a taste of something. So he tasted the new company. So four of us owned the company. It was myself, Dean Ganey, Byron, and Jeff. And it more than quadrupled in size in the last five, six years. And I'm actually still laughing to the steak because Byron did it all on Gmail and Google Drive. But anyway, yeah. No. It it it... And I... If I didn't have that support from my kids, and then I think now it's, like, all the time that I put into them and stuff, I'll never forget. They would sit by my desk with a, you know, a briefcase and do fake paperwork. Yeah. And they always they always knew
[00:46:32] Dustin Serviss: As young kids.
[00:46:33] Jeff McCallum: It was... Yeah. As young kids. Yeah. Yeah. As young kids. And I was always on the phone too. That was one thing my daughter anyway. Yeah. Always on the phone dad. Right?
[00:46:43] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Well, I I I share a similar story as a twelve year old, stuffing envelopes. One of my jobs was, our family friend was a stockbroker, And so I would stuff mailers that she was doing. And I would, at the end of my two hours after school, I would take her card and I would use like the old whiteout that was paint, and I would white out her name on her business card and put my own.
[00:47:06] Jeff McCallum: Oh my God.
[00:47:07] Dustin Serviss: I wish I could find one of those because I'm sure it's in some box somewhere, but pretty funny of the influences you get. And you brought that up of we are the sum total of whatever book wrote about it. The five closest things around us influence us, and that can be from our friends and our friends' income brackets to what they talk about to ex spouses, spouses. This is probably a good time to talk about the spousal influence awareness concept. And I don't know if you ever read the happiness equation, but Neil Pastricha talks about... If you think of, like, a a axis across the top, so how happy are you, Jeff?
[00:47:46] Dustin Serviss: Well, you say, Ram, roughly eighty percent of the time, I'm happy. And so, you know, it's like ten percent, twenty, thirty. And so you're eighty percent happy. And then you say, you know, your wife's Julie, so how happy is she? And so ten percent, twenty percent, and that's going down the y axis. So for anyone listening, I am making some hand gestures, but it's not gonna make sense. So your happiness across the top, Julie's going up and down, and she's happy at roughly eighty percent of the time. Well, when you draw a line across, that means that eighty percent for you and eighty percent for her, that sixty
[00:48:16] Dustin Serviss: four percent of the time, you and Julie are both in sort of a positive mindset. And when people talk about debating financial decisions, and they're like, Nah, we can never come to an agreement. Well, it probably is that you're in the thirty two percent of no man's land. You know, that one person's happy and one's not. So, you know, there's all this, you know, I'm tangenting like you're taking somebody to put you up into your book, but of the influences and the news and making sure that you're putting the right mind nourishment around you that's in line with your goals. So if you're gonna fitness goals, bathe in that sort of
[00:48:53] Dustin Serviss: mindset, and if it's financial, then you're doing it as well. But I got,
[00:48:58] Jeff McCallum: okay. Go ahead. I got one question. I got two
[00:49:00] Dustin Serviss: questions for you.
[00:49:02] Jeff McCallum: Well, when you say fitness, you know, it's like... And it's something you said earlier on at the very beginning you're talking about. You know, I have a a... I'm young at heart, and I truly believe that. I think that when I said balance in my life, you know, when you're thinking about health and you're reading books on health and you're practicing good health practices, you realize you're into health. And that... And you you you know what I mean? Like, it... It's like you care about your your your body. Because I'll tell you one thing. You only have health and relationships when you start getting to this age because having stuff...
[00:49:37] Jeff McCallum: Having money and buying stuff is fine. When I bought that Mercedes and BMW, I thought, wow. This is great. You know? But it's not... It... It's
[00:49:46] Dustin Serviss: It's not you. It's not what it's not what you said.
[00:49:48] Jeff McCallum: Well, actually, don't get me wrong. I'd love to buy a new... A brand new BMW, but I got a five series. I'm pretty happy. I saw a guy with an Audi eight yesterday. I was like,. He goes, they're too light, though, Jeff. I go, okay. But the thing is...
[00:49:59] Dustin Serviss: Happiness is easier to see in a convertible.
[00:50:04] Jeff McCallum: Yeah. When they say try not smiling on a jet ski. But, Right. You know you know, what was I gonna say about that, Donna?
[00:50:13] Dustin Serviss: Well, nice stuff and,
[00:50:15] Jeff McCallum: Well, no. Yeah. The the health thing for me is, like, I I think that when I say balance, it's, like, you know, you... To prepare yourself for... You know, I ran into a guy yesterday. We're looking at some real estate. And I know this guy. And I know the business that he was in. And he's selling the buildings because not not not the business. And he's not healthy. He's seventy six. He's not healthy. And it's because of that business. I know it. And, chemicals and stuff, not just, you know, the the stress. And I think to myself, you know, you you you... Well, it's all business. It's all lifestyle as well. You gotta look at that. Right?
[00:50:54] Jeff McCallum: So I don't know. At fifty nine, physically, I'm in good shape, and I'm lucky that keeps young. I I just had to put that out there because I think it's... You know, you can chase dollars all you want. You can... What do they call it? Once you have your creature comforts down, you're good to go, so to speak. Yep. Don't chase the dollar at any cost. That's all I say. I could've kept the business and and said, well, I have this legacy thing going on. Well, I don't. It was a vehicle for my kids to grow to who they are. And then and then I see the grandkids, how they're being brought up. We have seven. And it's like it's it's... That's cool.
[00:51:31] Jeff McCallum: That's glorious. Anyway, go ahead. Sorry.
[00:51:33] Dustin Serviss: No. Well, I've... So now you've given me a third question, but that's fine. We will, we're just gonna make
[00:51:37] Jeff McCallum: it work. So k.
[00:51:39] Dustin Serviss: When is the right time to sell a business is, a question I get and work through the emotional side. Again, we've got tax accountants and all the people to to figure the numbers out, but it usually isn't the numbers that's the biggest issue. It's it's when the market knocks at your door and says, you know, here's an opportunity. And, you know, maybe, you know, divulge as much as you want, but at the same time, some business owners have trouble getting their heads around that isn't my plan. My, you know, and I'm theorizing it. Your, you know, Jeff's plan was to retire and sell at sixty five.
[00:52:19] Dustin Serviss: I don't know what it was, but it's, you know, that scenario, but also now you hear, R and, you know, if it's in the last year, you're at a certain age and it's like, well, someone's knocking. I've got it. Do do you change your plan? Do you pivot? Or was it just crystal clear that, you know, you you know, you saw a better opportunity for more than just yourself with with the
[00:52:44] Jeff McCallum: the transition? Interesting you say that. You know? Never had to sort of really think about it or answer it, but I think it was definitely time for me physically, mentally because one foot in the business and one out. I mean, the thing ran on its own. But Mhmm. You know, somebody said to me once, well, Jeff, why wouldn't you just keep it then? Why wouldn't you just let it keep riding, paying you, you know, money every month or whatever? And I'm like, because if you're gonna do something, I want... I almost compartmentalize. I wanna do something. I'm gonna be in awe.
[00:53:20] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:53:20] Jeff McCallum: I always felt like I had to be on because I was still doing a little bit of marketing and stuff. And so three years ago... It was three, four years ago, somebody asked, Jeffrey interested in selling? At the time, no. I said, no. Not even close to it. I... No. I said no. And it took a few other people to ask. And I think the biggest thing for me was you just know. You know when you're burnt out with that. It's... And I didn't... I wasn't hanging on. They... Listen. I I had a little bit of post traumatic, it's my baby. You know? I had a little of that, and I miss my my employees. I I do miss that. But then I I do... I... It it just had its run.
[00:54:04] Jeff McCallum: I mean, thirty years of doing that business is a massive grind. And I I and I know that if I would've kept my foot into it, even when I sold, I said, look. I don't wanna do any earn out anything for myself. I'm out. Mhmm. I want out because I am gonna... I wanna shut it off because otherwise, well, then you can't get on with something else. You gotta close that off. It's like a log jam. Right? And so, I don't know if that answers it or not. No. It it totally answers. It's gut instinct. You you do know physically and mentally where if you're done with something, you you gotta move on and and create. You gotta get out of there. You know? Yeah.
[00:54:41] Jeff McCallum: I was... I'm I'm... And now that I'm seven, eight months here, yeah. Plus, I was really happy that it went to a, you know, that Canstar product because they were like us. They... Same companies. They're in Vancouver. We just added to their... You know, they opened up some other locations same time. It was a good fit. And, actually, here's a good sort of, you know, we always look at, you know, the the dream of business. When you have a niche product, it goes, you know, you can make money with it for a long time, then other people get into it. Right? And then all of a sudden, it's... Everyone's into restoration.
[00:55:21] Jeff McCallum: Nobody even knew what that was in the nineties.
[00:55:24] Dustin Serviss: Right.
[00:55:24] Jeff McCallum: Like, it was a carpet cleaner extracting water, then builders... What are we talking about here? Right? So then and that's the same thing with the asbestos. Then asbestos came along and we had to test for asbestos in every house ten years ago or whatever. That became a new business. So two waves I rode. And the asbestos is still... I feel like that company or that type of business is being... Become even more niche because WorkSafe and environmental people are clapping more and more down on it. Right. And and again, it's the old who... You know, when you have specialized knowledge, you have specialized knowledge. That's worth something. Yeah.
[00:56:01] Jeff McCallum: So I rode those two waves as lucky, to to get out when I did. Not lucky. I could've kept it going now. I I mean, listen. There's forest fires everywhere. The... Yeah. You're... You could be renting air scrubbers out right now at some crazy price. But, yeah. No. I I just knew when to get out, and it feels really good seven months later. And it takes a while to go,
[00:56:26] Dustin Serviss: Well, congratulations. That's, again, not, something that happened overnight, and I know there was a few sleepless nights. So, congratulations on sort of getting there. And final question that I ask everybody is, what is your ultimate picture of wealth?
[00:56:51] Jeff McCallum: The ultimate picture of wealth for me and something I think I've been working on all my life is when I say balance, I have balance. Mhmm. I'm I have four healthy kids that are successful. I have seven grandchildren. I have... I live in the best place in the world. I consider Canada and the Okanagan to be the best place in the world even though... And, you know, I have a loving wife. We have a great family. Like, our our kids are we just have this great thing going. For me, like I say, health and relationships. So it's great to have old friends that I've lived in this community for thirty years.
[00:57:39] Jeff McCallum: You know, sometimes when I walk downtown, I don't want to because you... It's a small town, Summerlin. Yeah. How are you doing, Jeff? I don't have time to talk to you. You know? Yeah. No. I'm just being facetious. But... Yeah. No. I mean, that for me is, like... And and and now I'm... Like, even when I... You know, I don't think I'm done. So it's not...
[00:57:59] Dustin Serviss: Life starts at fifty nine.
[00:58:01] Jeff McCallum: Yeah. I'm telling you, man. I'm feeling it. Like, I don't know why, but one thing I did learn is I I, was talking a lot about getting into mentoring. And then I'm like, I don't really want to go down the path again of being in the minutiae of not helping people, but I would rather talk at them. Listen. It's easier to do it. It's easier to be like a Tony Robbins on the stage and tell people how it is, and then let them figure it out as they walk away Yeah. In a nice way. Because not everybody is gonna hear you or listen to you. They're gonna Mhmm. Get their own religion as it were. So, anyway, little more than the answer you needed. But
[00:58:40] Dustin Serviss: No. No. I I think it's it's a great point in that you've got to inspire and and show some sort of valid reason that something is is a certain way or could be a certain way. And then people need to choose that and use their own imagination. And I think in today's society, we take everything so freaking literal that Yeah. You know, oh, if I read Steve Jobs' book, biography, well, I'm gonna be Steve Jobs. And Mhmm. You're doing everything Steve Jobs said in his book, but yet it's not happening. And we've we've gone away from it, and, you know, we've got everything at our fingertips from you wanna change your spark plugs in your car
[00:59:16] Dustin Serviss: to whatever on on the computer. You don't need to think. You don't need to have the courage to stick your neck out to yourself, not even to anybody else. So I really appreciate what we chatted about, Jeff, and I I think there's... I know I learned a lot, got a little bit of notes, and, you know, we could... I'm sure once I listen to this again, we'll have a couple sub pods that we could, riff off into. But, is there anything else that you wanna teach, share before you, we sign off this morning?
[00:59:49] Jeff McCallum: Yeah. You know, I just think don't hold... You know, you said something there. It's like, don't take things literal. Don't hang on so tight. Mhmm. People hang on way too tight. It's like you're... That was a good example you used of reading a book, and then I'm gonna be wise and it worked for me. Well, you know, if you think about the template that you were brought up with, your parents, whether you're religious or not, when you think about religion, won't get into that, but all these templates were given all our life. We packed that around. Somebody said the other day that you act... You...
[01:00:22] Jeff McCallum: How you were at five years old is how you sort of present yourself in the world as an adult. So what I say it is is don't hang on too tight. Love yourself. People are too critical of themselves. Let yourself do a few little risky things. And if and if risk isn't your gig, then don't do it. Mhmm. You know, I I wish sometimes I didn't have this burning desire to do things. Sometimes I wish I could just work for the man, you know, play ball on the weekend, you know, that kind of thing. I'm just not that guy. I I always thought, what's wrong with me? But, you know, best advice is, like, let it go. Let it flow a bit, man.
[01:00:57] Jeff McCallum: Like, we're all in this together. And if and if we haven't learned anything from COVID, I mean, we... You know, it makes you realize how close we really all are around the planet after that COVID I call the the reset. I'm sure other people have coined that as well. But then, you know, we're all in this together. No one gets out alive type thing. And... Yeah. And it and then and it... I'll say one thing. You read a book, you're not happy with it, put it down. You read an audio, listen to an audio, but not... Put it down. It'll come back to you someday.
[01:01:31] Show announcer: Yes.
[01:01:31] Jeff McCallum: You know, you'll...
[01:01:32] Dustin Serviss: I I love that, that analogy because...
[01:01:35] Jeff McCallum: Feed your brain with the right stuff. Right? Like, hang out with the right people. Don't let people rip you down. I listen to so many people that lose their confidence. You know? They get slapped once, and then they remember that slap forever. Mhmm. Let it go. We got... There's no time for that. Jeez. You get to fifty nine. I'm I'm I'm not that old, you know, compared to some people, but I I... I'm lucky at fifty nine. She's like, I hear some people talk like me at thirty, and I'm like, wow, dude. You've got this dialed in. What are you gonna do the rest of your life? Sit on an orange mat? Anyway, nice talking to you. Hey.
[01:02:10] Jeff McCallum: You were part of my success too. Won't forget that then.
[01:02:13] Dustin Serviss: I, I appreciate, your words, Jeff, and, and your trust, and I will look forward to the next podcast. Thank you.
[01:02:20] Jeff McCallum: Perfect, man. Thanks again.
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