Turning Trash into Cash: The Lucrative World of Parking Lot Litter Cleanup featuring Brian Winch with Cleanlots

00:00:00 Entrepreneurial Journey with John Kelley and Brian Winch

[00:00:00] Intro: Tell me your story. Tell me your story. How did it all start? Do you remember?

[00:00:04] John Kelley: Alright. Now what happened? How did it stop? You're now tuned into the Small Business Origins podcast. I love an origin story.

[00:00:11] John Kelley: Each week, we dive into the real stories of entrepreneurs and businesses from across the nation. Louisian, what's his origin story? Who started with just an idea and are now making waves. I told you this was a good idea. This is Small Business Origins.

[00:00:29] Brian Winch: What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of small business origins. You're tuned in to our nationwide search for entrepreneurs that have a story to tell. And joining us virtually in the studio is an entrepreneur John.

00:00:54 Topping Burgers and Flavor Preferences

[00:00:54] Brian Winch: It's always great to have you, and I'm interested in what it is that you do, and I wanna break all that stuff down. But before we do, we always start out with an icebreaker question. And today's icebreaker question is, how do you top your burgers?

[00:01:07] Intro: Oh, I I love a mushroom Swiss. You can't beat that.

[00:01:17] Brian Winch: Yeah. I am, I'm one that kinda does whatever it is that I'm ordering. So, you know, I just kinda let it roll as far as whatever flavors the restaurant has curated and put together, and they're presenting on that hamburger is what I typically go with minus the things I don't like. Mushrooms is one of the ones I'm not a huge fan of. But I'll tell you every single hamburger I eat has to have jalapenos and bacon.

[00:01:41] Brian Winch: I don't care how you're flavoring your burger, what you're doing there. I want jalapenos and I want Bacon. Burger. That's for sure.

[00:01:47] Intro: I'm not too picky. I, I just don't particularly like, the, you know, some of the spicy mayos or whatever. But other than that, pretty easy.

[00:02:04] Brian Winch: I heard a saying yesterday that kinda cracked me up and is like my new my new standard saying now is if you ain't sneezing, then it ain't seasoned. So the spicier, the better for me. I love spice in there. I like to, you know, be woken up by the flavors that are, just impacted in the food that I'm eating for sure.

[00:02:24] Intro: Whatever works.

00:02:29 From Janitor to Successful Entrepreneur: Brian Winch Shares His Journey

[00:02:29] Brian Winch: Alright. Well, Brian, we're here to talk about you, man. Where did you come from and how'd you get into entrepreneurship? What's your origin story?

[00:02:35] Intro: I was 21 and, working a full time job as a shipper receiver at a large sporting goods company. And, I wasn't a very good student at school. I just barely graduated high school. So, I was doing what I could, you know, pretty much do for the rest of my life. And, at that age of 21, I I saw it as a dead end job.

[00:02:55] Intro: I wasn't gonna really, my opportunity for advancement, was pretty much slim to none. So I started looking at different, opportunities for self employment. I, you know, I've always been an independent thinker or person, a loner or an introvert. And I just like to do my own thing, and that's it. And so, you know, the problem was I I didn't have a lot of money in the bank and, you know, not not many skills because I didn't go to college.

[00:03:26] Intro: So what could I do? So, you know, there was a saying back then. It's it's still prevalent today. You know, fortunes can be made cleaning up after others. So, that kind of sparked an idea.

[00:03:38] Intro: My dad was, a janitor, and he had recently passed away at that time unexpectedly at the age of 61. And so, but I remembered, you know, he did a number of things to, you know, supplement the income, like, cut grass for people in the summer, shovel snow in the winter. But he also cleaned up litter from a nearby shopping plaza, and he had taken me along with him a couple of times when I was, I guess, 12 or 13. And I remembered, you know, wow. This is easy, and it's almost as easy as going for a walk.

[00:04:10] Intro: And and he's making money from this. And, you know, all we did was show up early in the morning, you know, before he went to work, before I went to school, before the business is open. And we would walk the exterior property, the sidewalks, parking lot, and the surrounding landscape. And to collect or sweep up any type of litter material, we we came across. You know, that stuff that people always discard, cigarette butts, empty drink cups, fast food wrappers.

[00:04:36] Intro: We we would, sweep that it up into our litter collection devices and, you know, it would just be a matter of minutes to to walk the property. And and, you know, he was paid to do this on a regular basis. The point was to keep the property litter free as opposed to going in and cleaning up a in a commute accumulation of litter, debris, or material. So, you know, with that memory, I thought, well, you know, maybe there's a full time business, you know, in there, with that idea for myself. So, make a long story short, you know, I I remembered who his prospects were.

[00:05:09] Intro: I mean, he was working for property management companies. So I just started letting my fingers do the walking, if you will, in the old telephone, yellow page directory, the the Internet of the day. And, you know, started cold calling and refined my elevator pitch, and, about 3 or 4 calls in, I had a prospect. He said, you know what? Here's, the addresses of 2 properties.

[00:05:33] Intro: Go take a look at them. Get back to me with a price, and we'll see what happens. And that's how it started. I, you know, I got, 2 properties, and, I continued to scale the business. So then after about, I guess, 3 months, I was making more money on the side than I was from my full time job.

[00:05:52] Intro: Simple decision for me. I quit my job, and I've been cleaning up litter for parking lots ever since for 40 plus years.

[00:06:03] Brian Winch: Wow. What a what a way to to just kinda hop into it full time. I wish that I had that success story already. That's something that I'm definitely working for is, like you said, it's an easy decision. When you look down and you say, well, I'm making more money working for myself than I am for someone else, then why would I continue to be there for somebody else?

[00:06:22] Brian Winch: So you were telling me earlier that you have a book as well that you distribute widely in the US.

[00:06:28] Intro: Lots, And it's available, on Amazon and the online bookstores, but also from my website, cleanlots.com. And, I got the idea to share this opportunity with other people about 5 years into my business when I realized, you know, wow. I mean, you know, I I I developed this business from the school of hard knocks, but it would have been great if I had somebody, to to teach me the ropes. You know? It would have saved me a lot of time and money.

[00:06:55] Intro: And, you know, and, you know, there's a lot of people, you know, I guess, in my demographic that, you know, don't have a lot of money, don't have many skills, but they they wanna work for themselves. And, you know, what what kind of opportunity are up our opportunities are out there. So I thought why not share it with other people and, you know, Clean Lots, America's simplest business was born. And, and, yeah, I I I really get a kick out of helping other people across the country start something like this in their community. And, you know, I I enjoy, you know, kind of both worlds.

[00:07:30] Intro: I still clean the parking lots because I enjoy doing it. I get the satisfaction of seeing the results from my work and knowing I'm making a community a cleaner, safer place to live, work, and play. But, you know, and I also enjoy sharing the opportunity with other people.

00:07:46 Scaling a Litter Cleanup Business from One-Man Operation to a Successful Company

[00:07:46] Brian Winch: So how long was it that you spent in the business doing all of the work yourself before you transitioned into having employees?

[00:07:52] Intro: The original intent was just to keep it simple and just stay a one man operation. And I did that for a number of years, probably, you know, 5, 7 years, something like that. And then I I guess I became a victim of my own success. You know, my my clients started asking for more of me in more places, and I can only be so many places at one time. So out of necessity, you know, I had to, you know, bring some people in.

[00:08:18] Intro: You know, firstly, starting, providing weekend service. I I wasn't up to working 7 days a week. So that's how it started. And and then, you know, we I got other people to, like friends, coworkers, colleagues. You know, there's plenty of people out there that are willing to make some money on the side, you know, providing a simple service such as ours.

[00:08:40] Intro: And, and then, you know, so we continue to scale. You know, I I went from a one man operation that did about $100,000 a year, into one, eventually now. We we bill out anywhere from 6.50 to $700,000 a year, and that's all we do. Just litter litter cleanup. We don't get into any other cleaning services.

[00:09:01] Intro: So it's it's a very unique niche cleaning service, that, you know, people can make a lot of money doing if they don't mind cleaning up after other people.

[00:09:11] Brian Winch: So is this mainly just large kind of empty lots or, like, parking lots, that kind of stuff that you service?

[00:09:18] Intro: Which would be, you know, the parking lot is part of that of any type of commercial development. It could be, retail strip plazas, office industrial, or or else, you know, like smaller office buildings. Those are our 3 main markets. And, so, you know, I mean, people have, you know, approached me and said, well, you know, do you clean apartment condos or residential properties? And and, you know, it is possible, but we've never gotten into that segment of the market.

[00:09:47] Intro: You know, the money the big money we have discovered is is in the commercial, you know, with for commercial property management companies.

[00:09:56] Brian Winch: How many people does it take to go to the company like that?

[00:09:58] Intro: With the unique hand tools with that we use. And because we're providing our service on a frequent basis anywhere from, you know, 2 or 3 days a week for, you know, like, the office industrial, you know, properties up to, you know, 5 to 7 day a week for the retail properties. You know, because we're maintaining these properties just a little bit more time that it takes to walk the property. So anywhere from, you know, like, maybe a small strip plaza might take, you know, 10 or 15 minutes to service. You know, you know, maybe something a bit larger, half an hour, up to maybe, an hour, an hour and a half, you know, to to, to walk the property.

[00:10:34] Intro: So, it it is pretty simple work. You know, you just have to be willing to go out and do it. And, you know, the key is you you need to provide the service the in the early morning hours and have it completed just before businesses open. So that's that's how you can provide your best results because you can clearly see and clean all litter material without any type of vehicle interference.

[00:10:56] Brian Winch: Yeah. That makes sense. So, what's, like, the average cost of something like this? It is subscription based. It's kinda what you're telling me.

[00:11:03] Brian Winch: Right? Because you wanna be able to come back, like, every week and do this to maintain it. So what kind of a cost am I looking at or should I expect?

[00:11:10] Intro: In the book, we show you how to, put together a price, and it's based on the time it takes to walk the property. And then after a while with experience, you get really good at it. You could just look at a property, and you have to be there. I mean, if someone approaches you and say, hey. I've got a property, a 100 square a 100,000 square feet, you know, what's the price?

[00:11:30] Intro: It just doesn't work that way. You, there's so many variables. No two properties are identical, or, you know, exactly identical. I mean, one one can generate or have tenants that generate more trash material, you know, like, you know, maybe a a pizza restaurant that sells pizza by the slice, a fast food, you know, chain, maybe a convenience store, or is the other another property at the same square footage is largely white collar professional in nature like doctors offices, law firms, engineering firms. But, basically, you know, you would put together a contract price which you bill your clients year round, monthly for, let's say, $400 a month or 9.50 a month or or, you know, anywhere up to, you know, even, you know, $25100 a month.

[00:12:21] Intro: So, you know, it it it it it actually brings in really, really nice money if someone is thinking of doing this on the side or eventually scaling it into a full time business, you know, like like I've done.

00:12:34 Starting a Litter Removal Business with Minimal Investment

[00:12:34] Brian Winch: Yeah. I mean, that that's amazing. I know you have the book that kinda tells you how to build the business there, but these specialized hand tools that you have, are these things that you, like, own that are proprietary? Or are these things I can purchase and utilize?

[00:12:46] Intro: Manufacture them. You know, I don't own the rights or anything, but I I I it's ironic. I've been using the same hand tools for over 40 years because nothing has ever been developed that is as good or it was has been better. And, people can see that on my website. There I have a brief video showing me, you know, servicing a property, so people get a better understanding as, you know, you know, what, how is this work done, and what types of tools do you use.

[00:13:15] Intro: But in the book, I do provide the contact information for that company, and so people can, get in touch with them directly and and order the tools. But, you know, basically, you know, you might see some people out there, some competitors that are using all sorts of small, tiny, little lobby pans, which are really intended for the in inside of a building or these litter grabber tools, which might work good when you're trying to reach something inside of a bush. But, you know, if if you can imagine, you don't wanna use those tools to clean up 1 cigarette butt at a time. Whereas the tools we use, we simply walk up to the materials, with the broom, you know, sweep it or pass it into our our our collection tool and, you know, off we go to the next item.

[00:13:58] Brian Winch: So how much do you think, you know, because like I'm sitting here thinking in my head right now, me and my 14 year old have had some discussions about ways that he can start making money and saving up and doing those kinds of things to get a car and whatnot. And I'm like, you know, this seems like something that would be a good match for him. What is the cost to entry into this kind of a job or this type of company if it is just a solopreneur that's looking to kinda cut your own thing?

[00:14:24] Intro: Started, you know, back in 1981 with an investment of of about $250. So I mean, nowadays with inflation, you know, I would say, you know, you could probably start for under $1,000 and and, you know, maybe $750. The biggest expense, in getting started would be the cost of your comprehensive business liability insurance. If you're going to be providing this service, you know, for a commercial client such as a property manager, they wanna make sure that you carry the appropriate, you know, amount of insurance. And the insurance, you know, protects them, but also protects you against any type of liability, slip and fall claims, etcetera.

[00:15:05] Intro: But, typically, you know, you know, that, you can get started. There's a lot of my students have been reporting that they can find coverage for, something that rounds out to about $100 a month. So that would be $1200 for the year. And sometimes, you, you know, you don't have to pay up front. You can just, you know, you know, pay in the installment either monthly or quarterly or or every 6 months, as a way as a means to, you know, kind of bootstrap your resources and get started, you know, more inexpensively.

[00:15:34] Intro: But the hand tools, we're looking in about, you know, 50 to $75. You can, you know, you you have a home based office. You can use the whatever vehicle as long as it's reliable to get you around from job site to job site, and and, you know, I teach my students very, inexpensive and, you know, in a lot of cases, free, ways to market your service to get started. So, you know, you you don't have to jump in and and build, or develop an elaborate, elaborate website to begin with. You can start with things like a Google business profile and a LinkedIn profile because, you know, that's where your, your clients are, and and and it's a way to make it easy for your prospects to find you, besides, you know, you know, you going out there and and and and trying to find prospects for your for your business.

00:16:24 Starting a Cleaning Business in a Local Area

[00:16:24] Brian Winch: So going back to your company that that you're still running, about how large of an area do you service? You know, where where do you go out to

[00:16:32] Intro: in your area? Where do

[00:16:33] Brian Winch: you not go?

[00:16:34] Intro: Calgary area and surrounding communities. So, you know, Calgary is about 1,300,000 in population. So, when I first started, you know, the city was smaller. And, you know, I I would kind of go all over the city wherever the work would take me. And then you you you learn to become more efficient.

[00:16:53] Intro: And, you you know, over time, when you develop more properties, you can, you know, kind of keep a route for yourself in a certain part of the city. And and then, you know, when you have more properties in another side of the city, that's when you get somebody else to to, you know, to do the work over there. You know, and it cuts back in your travel time, but it also, makes you more efficient in terms of the time it takes to to clean your properties.

[00:17:18] Brian Winch: Why did you decide to write a book and train others to do it instead of doing, like, you know, a franchise or something where you could have somebody kind of buy into your program and actually open up in a remote location.

[00:17:30] Intro: Actually, the business model is too darn simple. You know, if someone's gonna pay me, you know, a few $1,000 for the exclusive rights to to, you know, to to sell franchises in a certain area, You know, what are they going to get back from me? What are the benefits of being a franchise? And you know, really like I say that name recognition doesn't really matter because by and large every every city has different property management companies. I mean I mean sure, there are some that operate nationally like, you know, Colliers International, CBRE or whatever.

[00:18:07] Intro: But, you know, property management companies tend to be these, these mom and pop operations, if you will. I mean, they only operate in that particular city. So, you know, having a name doesn't really matter to them. They're just concerned with results. And so, you know, once people buy my book and they learn the business, they don't need me anymore.

[00:18:28] Intro: I mean, I do provide free coaching, free online or free, you know, free support, you know, for people to get started and get this business off the ground and bounce some ideas, off me. But, you know, I think after a while, once they've learned the business, they they people resent sending me, you know, 3% royalties every month on the off the money that they are making. You know? And so it's not like they buy television or radio commercials from me, and and they they get some exposure that way from a national brand recognition. So so and and, also, I chose the book format because, it I wanna make it as affordable as possible for people that don't have a lot of money, for people that wanna start a cleaning business.

00:19:14 Franchising vs. Publishing a Book on How to Start a Business

[00:19:14] Intro: And and, you know, so I wanna I wanted to make the the opportunity as affordable for that, group of people as opposed to people that maybe have deeper pockets, and then maybe aren't even interested in getting into a cleaning business.

[00:19:28] Brian Winch: Yeah. That I mean, that makes sense. It's just not something that I guess I would always think about. You know, we just I see these companies like Half Baked, which is this cookie company I had on my show, not too long ago. And she was like, man, I just had customers that loved the cookies I made so much that they wanted to open locations in these remote areas that I was shipping to, like in Arkansas and Chicago and, you know, all these places far away from down here in Texas where we're at.

[00:19:56] Brian Winch: And it's like, that is so crazy when you have that level of success. Something we talked about early in the show here was it just kinda blows up and it's not something you're expecting to happen. You know? And then when somebody says that, it's like, well, cool. Capitalize on it and franchise.

[00:20:10] Brian Winch: But it makes sense that you would have the book. Because like you said, it is such an easy thing to do. Right? Anybody can even if they're not using your tools, I can just go walk in the parking lot and pick it up by hand if I want to. Anyone can go do this job easily.

[00:20:23] Brian Winch: It's doing it the way that you've kinda set forth. And I feel like having that book is gonna bring you some good revenue as well that's going to, kind of, in a way, replace that franchise, if not, all of it at least some of it.

[00:20:36] Intro: Of my income still comes from cleaning parking lots. I mean, that's the bread and butter. So the the additional revenue I generate from teaching others, you know, how to duplicate my success in their their cities, It's nice. It it, you know, it's it, but, you know, it's it's never gonna be the same that, you know, like, 600,000, $700,000 a year, whatever. But, you know, one thing I will say, another benefit from the people buying my book is they're not limited as to where they operate.

[00:21:06] Intro: The most successful student of mine to date, was a high school teacher in Illinois, and he was looking for something to do on the side in the summer months when he had more time when school wasn't in in the season or excuse me. And, so, you know, he started out simply just like I did, and then he built it into a full time business. And and then now he's operating in almost, I think, 50 states right across the country. And, you know, he he kinda struck gold, if you will, doing business for one particular client. You know, I won't I won't say who it is.

[00:21:44] Intro: But, I mean, they have stores all over the country, and they they were so happy with this work in his local market. They start they put it out to him. Well, you know you know, do you have people in these other cities? And he at the time, he didn't, but he didn't say no. And he simply recruited people, in other cities to do this work.

[00:22:05] Intro: He would provide them the with the the work and, you know, show them this is what needs to be done, and they would do the work. And then that enabled him to operate, right across the country. And he's making a fortune doing this, and there's no reason why other people can't do the same. Yeah.

[00:22:23] Brian Winch: That's what an amazing success story. I mean and then like you said, all of this goes right back to the very beginning where you can make a fortune cleaning up someone else's mess. And it's so amazing how much money people will spend on that, especially companies who don't wanna hire people full time all across the country to service all of their locations to do nothing but pick up trash on a corporate level where they're offering retirement benefits. They have to do the training and all this stuff. It's just they'd rather pay a fortune to somebody to come in and handle it for them just because they know the work's gonna get done and I don't have to worry about it.

[00:22:57] Brian Winch: And I'll be honest, I'm one of those people that, you know, sometimes in life, there's certain tasks that I don't mind paying somebody to do because I don't want the headache. And you just have to know when to capitalize on that.

[00:23:08] Intro: Any other service that's necessary to maintain a commercial property. I mean, property managers pay big money to landscape contractors to, you know, to to maintain their landscape, and then in certain areas of the city, you know, provide snow removal during the winter months. You know, it's amazing the fortune sometimes that they pay out, but they all they want are results, and they don't wanna have to go out and, do this provide the service self and and the equipment. And with with our service, the the reason it's been so successful for over 40 years is, like I mentioned earlier, the time of day we do it. You know, we there are some competitors of ours that are out there.

[00:23:46] Intro: It might be a landscaper. It might be a cleaning company, but they're trying to fit the service in the same time they're providing their other services which you in most cases, does not work. You know, I'll put it to you this way. You know, if you're if a property manager is going to have, their, you know, property power swept with a street sweeper, that's that, sweeper is not coming in during the day when businesses are open and there's cars in the parking lot. It's there after hours, and it's the same goes for our service.

[00:24:16] Intro: I mean, we have to clearly see the whole exterior property, which includes the parking lot. And the only time of day that that's possible is in the early morning hours. And, so, that that works. But, you know, also, you know, like I mentioned earlier, I'm an introvert, you know, a bit of a loner. I really enjoy doing the work at that time of day because I don't have the hustle or bustle hustle bustle.

[00:24:42] Intro: Well, you know, all that the traffic headaches. I can get in there. I have the peace of the early morning hours, especially in the summertime when I see the sun come up. And I really enjoy what I do and and that time of day. And, you know, I can do a lot of my best thinking at that time of day too for whatever I wanna do or add another product to, to help people, develop this business in their cities.

[00:25:05] Brian Winch: Yeah. I I think it's a great idea. So are you on social media, YouTube, anything like that right now?

[00:25:10] Intro: I just started a YouTube channel and, maybe you can put that in the show notes. I could get provide that to you later. But I've got a Facebook page, to help me, you know, share content about my business opportunity. Of course, you know, with the cleaning business, I I have a company page on LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile. And, yeah.

[00:25:34] Intro: I you know, I I'm not on all the different show social program or platforms. It's just the ones that, work for me and, you know, where my my prospects are gonna be.

[00:25:44] Brian Winch: Yeah. Focusing your energy. I don't think it's a bad thing. I just like to encourage people definitely to go give you a follow and and pay attention to what you're doing and just kinda see what information you're pushing out there. Are you always pushing educational content out as well as, you know, the services you provide?

00:26:02 Discussion on Entrepreneurship Opportunities in Parking Lot Cleaning Business

[00:26:02] Intro: Well, it went with my YouTube page. It's it's the the business opportunity. And I've got a couple of videos there now where, you know, I've been on podcasts and, you know, the interview's gone really well. I I just released, was it Monday? Kind of like an explainer video on on the opportunity, and that's out there on YouTube.

[00:26:25] Intro: And, same thing I shared on my Facebook page, and then also my LinkedIn company page. We I also have a a company page for the cleaning business too where we we share, you know, observations and and tips for property managers, you know, how to you you get the most out of their, their parking lot litter litter cleanup service. And so, yeah, you you have to be out there to get exposure, make it easy for people to find you.

[00:26:53] Brian Winch: Absolutely. That's why we always link everything that we talked about right there in the show notes for our guests and for our listeners so that they can absolutely find everything that they need to connect with you and to learn from you. And most importantly, to go to cleanlots.com and buy that book and start learning it. I'm I'm telling you right now, I'm probably gonna buy it for my son and, you know, try and encourage him that this is something that I can invest in and help him to make money at. I think it it's a great opportunity for anyone and it's a a nice humbling experience for people too, you know, to get out there and bend over and pick up other people's trash and serve other people and do something that is truly making an impact right there

[00:27:35] Intro: Brought up the point that it's it's very humble. And so, you know, what better way for a young person to learn that, there's a great way to make money, if, you know, from a very simple service if you don't mind doing it. All too often, there's a lot of people who turn their nose up at various opportunities and and, know, they're looking for that way to to get rich without having to work for it. And the the only people that maybe are making money that are the are the, the promoters selling these get rich quick schemes.

[00:28:08] Brian Winch: You see it all the time where they they want you to pay $500 and then you're gonna watch this video from them for an hour and you're gonna be rich all of a sudden. And I I think it's supply and demand, man. It just comes down to if you've got, you know, like the NFL for instance. You know, my son plays football. He loves playing football, and it's his dream to go in and be a part of the XFL or the NFL or, the CFL, anywhere that he can make money to play ball.

[00:28:34] Brian Winch: And it's like, that's a a great aspiration to have. And if it's something you can do, I'd love to see you do it. And I look forward to the day I can sit in my suites and, watch the game and invite my friends and family out to these boxes to, you know, have that VIP treatment. But the reality is there are so many millions of people who are faster than you, stronger than you, trying to go out for that job, and the reality of you making a crap ton of money off of it is just simply low. You know, I've heard some stats before that something like 2% of of high school football kids in Texas, which Texas has a huge football program, less than 2% go to college on a scholarship to play ball.

[00:29:16] Brian Winch: And then out of that, less than 2% of those people that made it actually get a chance to go to the NFL. And then you have to stand out and be on top to stay on the team and get the money with something like picking up trash, cutting lawns. These aren't things that, you know, everybody's coming out of the woodwork to do. There's a a special amount of people in every city that want to make money doing those kinds of jobs, but there's more opportunity there than there are companies that can provide the services. And so I think it just comes down to a simple supply and demand.

[00:29:49] Intro: You have to follow your passion. So, you know, I I wish your son good luck. But, you know, one thing he can understand is if he'd if he can't make it, you know, I'm I'm not saying he won't, but if he can't make it as a player, well, you know, he can still pursue a life in in football, pro football, maybe as an official, maybe as a as a coach. You know, so there's all sorts of various other, you know, jobs, if you will, that are are are surround the the sport, but that aren't necessarily playing. But, you know, he could still be an official.

[00:30:24] Intro: And, like, I I know I I coached hockey. I played hockey at a high level when I was younger. And, you know, I know a bunch of teammates that, you know, didn't work out playing playing in the NHL, but they became officials. And, you know, one one fellow, he's I think he was 15 years, as a linesman in the NHL. And, yeah, it didn't work out as a player, but, you know, he he still got to the the NHL.

[00:30:51] Brian Winch: Yeah. Like you said, it's it's passion and still being involved. I mean, same thing with, you know, football. Well, if you like marketing or you like podcasting or you like broadcasting or anything else, you can still be involved with football on a very high level and have very nice access to those football leagues by performing jobs that are kind of around that. But you're a a 100% right.

[00:31:15] Brian Winch: It's all about your passion because I'll tell you as someone who's living it right now, I'm not getting rich doing anything that I'm doing, but everything I'm doing, I love. And that's the part that makes it easier for me to wake up in the morning and go to work. Now I'm gonna tell you waking up at 5 AM or 4 AM and heading out there to pick up trash out of a parking lot doesn't seem like a good time to me, But being able to guide my son in the management and business side of things that I have the training and education in to help him to be successful in that is absolutely something that I would love to do just to be able to encourage him to have something he can call his own. And then there are people like you who, I think it's awesome that it brings you peace to just have that walk that's, you know, peaceful early in the morning, clear your mind and have those thoughts. And you're like, hey.

[00:32:04] Brian Winch: Hey. I'm not even working out here doing this because it's fun, you know, to you, which is great. I I love the fact that we have people with such wide interests that are are willing to do these jobs and not only willing, but enjoy it as well because it is a very necessary thing.

[00:32:18] Intro: That's one thing you could say for this opportunity. It's recession proof. It's pandemic proof. You know, people litter. They always have.

[00:32:25] Intro: I don't understand the psychology behind it, but there's always gonna be plenty of work to do.

[00:32:31] Brian Winch: Yeah. I think the psychology, unfortunately, behind it is I can just do it. I can do what I want because someone else will be there to pick it up. It's those that just weren't made to clean up after themselves as kids that grow into adults that just don't care because someone else will handle

[00:32:46] Intro: it for me. You know, I've I've I've often thought the same. But at the same time, I'm thinking, but still, you know, you don't hear this little voice from maybe your parents telling you not to throw garbage outside of your car onto the parking lot. But maybe they have parents to do the same thing, so they are great teachers. Right?

[00:33:04] Brian Winch: Yep. Right. Exactly. The cycle just repeats itself over and over again. No.

[00:33:11] Brian Winch: I I I really enjoyed our conversation today. I think that this is such a cool opportunity for someone who's looking to tap into a way to be an entrepreneur or a solopreneur, and they're not sure how to go about and do it. And the fact that you're willing to, for a small price, sell these secrets and kind of teach people exactly what it is that they need to do, I think this is amazing opportunity, and I can't wait to check out your website and share that with my son, and I hope that all of us

[00:33:38] Intro: appreciate that, John. And I wish everyone all the best.

[00:33:43] Brian Winch: Absolutely. Listeners, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Small Business Origins. Every single week, I am so thankful that people like you wanna tune in and hear stories from entrepreneurs just like Brian today. Make sure you check out the show notes for all the links that you need there because that's where you're gonna need to go to check out his book, to check out his company, what they're doing, and to be able to connect with Brian and ask him for those 1 on 1 trainings or anything that he's willing to offer to you to just kind of educate you on how you can be your own solopreneur entrepreneur just by cleaning up lots. But that's it.

[00:34:18] Brian Winch: It's another episode, another week of small business origins. We hope you tune in next week for another amazing story. Make sure you visit www.smallbusinessorigin.com to stay in touch, not only with your host, but our guests, as well as to sign up for our newsletter and find out about future episodes we have coming out and who we're gonna feature on those. But that's it. That's it for us.

[00:34:40] Brian Winch: We're done here. Another great conversation and as always stay beeping, my friends.

[00:34:47] John Kelley: Thanks for listening to another episode of Small Business Origins. I love an origin story. If you like what you just heard, leave us a review, subscribe, and share with a friend.

[00:34:57] Brian Winch: You guys check this out.

[00:34:58] John Kelley: They're gonna love it. You're gonna love it.