Episode 97
Recycling with a purpose with Max Johnson
Ever wonder what happens to all that unwanted furniture and how to keep it out of the landfills?
Our guest, Max Johnson, has the expertise to either find new homes for furniture and other large home items or recycle them through his company, JDog Junk Removal and Hauling.
Max is, a Gen X veteran with over two decades of military experience who caught the entrepreneurial bug and now serves his community with a can-do spirit.
This conversation goes into the universal work ethic amongst veterans, the role of technology in bridging generational divides and how Max transitioned from following orders to starting his own business.
Let us know what guest would you like to see next? You can email Brad or Steve to share your ideas!
Highlights:
- Veteran Work Ethics
Explore how the disciplined and mission-driven work culture among veterans can reinforce reliability within blue-collar businesses.
-Tech Savviness Across Ages
Understand how different generations adapt to technology and why embracing digital tools can benefit the work process, especially when managing a diverse team.
- Community Impact
Learn about the potential of small starting ventures to meaningfully contribute to sustainability and environmental responsibility in local areas.
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This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Transcript
Welcome to Blue Collar B's, a podcast that busts the popular myth that we can't find good people, highlighting how the different generations of today, the boomers, Gen X, millennials and Gen Z, are redefining work so that the industrial revolution that started in the US stays in the US.
Steven Doyle [:The Blue Collar B's podcast helps blue collar business owners like you build a business that'll thrive for decades to come by turning that blue collar B's into some blue collar business solutions.
Brad Herda [:In this episode, you're going to learn there's a common work ethic amongst veterans. How tech helps bridge the gap between generations and following orders versus taking control.
Steven Doyle [:Our guest today is Max Johnson, a Gen X who decided after 20 plus years in the military how he caught the entrepreneurial bug to support his community. We hope you enjoy the show. Welcome back to Blue Collar B's. Brad Hurda, how are you doing today?
Brad Herda [:I am fantastic, Mister Steven Doyle. It is a wonderful fall day here in Wisconsin. Deer hunting weekend. I'm not hunting, but deer hunting weekend starts here. I know you guys in Michigan have already started, if I recall, a week ahead of us. So Saturday morning we'll have over 6000 semi sober individuals out in the woods with loaded guns, making it like the, you know, 6th largest military force in the world at that point in time, opening weekend. So it'll be what could go wrong?
Steven Doyle [:What can go wrong? I mean, but again, I don't. I will eat tasty meat, so.
Brad Herda [:Exactly.
Steven Doyle [:You know, I'd much rather have them.
Brad Herda [:Shot than have them hit him with my car.
Steven Doyle [:Right. And hunting actually is conservation. So for all you hunters out there, thank you very much for doing us all a favor. And you know, we do eat tasty meat, so rock on, everyone.
Brad Herda [:Right? And when this releases in April, it's gonna be, what are you talking about, gentlemen? But whatever, it's okay. Yeah, exactly.
Steven Doyle [:Right, right.
Brad Herda [:So Steve, who is our guest today?
Steven Doyle [:So our guest today, we actually met at a community event here in Clarkston, Michigan. He is one of the owners of a local franchise called JDOG. His name is Max Johnson. Max, welcome to the show.
Max [:Hey, thanks guys. Happy to be here. Love your podcast. Really?
Brad Herda [:Yeah, thank you.
Max [:Very interesting. No, I'm happy. Like I said, I appreciate the opportunity and I don't know how much content, I have to say on the matter of the generation differences, but, you know, I think it's a great concept and who knows? Your leading questions might, you know, spur some thinking on my part, so.
Brad Herda [:Well, I'm confident.
Max [:I look forward to it.
Brad Herda [:I'm confident you have an opinion, and that's okay. That's what we're here share. That's why we're here. And challenge each other along the way. So because Mister Doyle tends to forget the first question, I'll start with that first question. And it's the only scripted question on the show. What generation do you belong to fit in with, et cetera there, Mister Max.
Max [:Well, that's a couple different questions, but I belong to Generation X.
Brad Herda [:And which generation do you believe you fit into? Let me ask you that question. Do you feel you fit into younger or older?
Max [:Yeah, no, it's. I probably belong square in Generation X, recognizing the, you know, the skills and analog and also digital right there in the middle. Yeah.
Brad Herda [:Okay, awesome.
Steven Doyle [:You know, as we were talking at the community event we were at, you were sharing some interesting information just around bringing on some of the younger generation that you have into your workforce. So kind of share with us a couple things that you learned bringing on some of the younger generation into your business.
Max [:Well, I have one that is of a, I believe, millennial, if I have my generation ages right. So we're a crew of three right now in my own franchise. So there are two of us that are the exact same age, and then I have one millennial. He was also, you know, since we're a veteran brand and we're about supporting veterans and military family members, I would say that his work attitude and that kind of thing really comes more from being a military family member. He was raised by his mom as a marine, and his father was in the Navy. So, you know, it's. It's kind of hard for me to pick out differences between him and. And me.
Max [:It's, you know, he's got a lot of blue collar background work that.
Brad Herda [:Let me take that. Let's take that question down a different path. Maybe not from the police side of it. Let's talk about your customers. Let's talk about the millennial customer that calls you right there. Maybe they're the. Maybe they're moving to their second home, whatever it might be. You know, they're in their first home, and they say, hey, we just bought this house.
Brad Herda [:They're getting ready to move, and they want all the other shit taken out of the house. They're leaving.
Max [:Yeah.
Brad Herda [:How are those interactions with those individuals or expectations of what you're expecting them to be prepared for versus what you're. What they're doing expecting you to do? Is there a gap or expectation gap there?
Max [:It definitely steers our sales tactics for sure. You know, I've noticed that JDOG is about environmental sustainability, but we really key in on that when we're trying to reach a customer that's younger and they're concerned about their environment and what, you know, the future that they're about to, that they got the life ahead of them and they want to make sure that the, you know, that we keep the planet green. And so we key in on what we do with the stuff that we haul away. You know, we're sorting. We're sorting things. We keep. We like to sell above a dumpster because as we do the removal, we are sorting things for donation. Otherwise, you know, some other type of repurposing and recycling.
Max [:Whereas, you know, when you order a dumpster, everything goes in the dumpster. It all goes to the landfill.
Brad Herda [:Correct.
Max [:So with that type of customer, you know, that, that helps them make the decision, oh, this is a good idea. I don't have the means to put everything in my Honda civic and take it down to the. Take it down to the donation center themselves. On the flip side, you know, when I'm talking to somebody that's transitioning into senior living, you know, maybe they've lived with their. With their items for 30 years, so they've got attachments. You know, it's hard. It's hard for seniors to give up certain things just knowing that it's just going to get trashed. So.
Brad Herda [:Right.
Max [:We are going to sell the emotional side that, listen, you know, your stuff has value still, and maybe you can't take it with you, but we're going to do something good with it, you know, whether it be supporting the community at a food pantry or bringing people out of some of the donation centers around here. They build job skills. They're reconditioning furniture, or maybe they're setting up housing for the homeless or people that are emerging from homelessness. So we try to reach our customers kind of where they're at, and they have different priorities based on their generation, based on their age and where they're at in their life. I did think of something, you know, with my employees. One of them, like I said, he's almost exactly my age, and he doesn't like tech, you know, but we're very, you know, you've got to be tech work. Every, every small business now has got to have some, some tech included, you know, to be successful, to help kind of manage the days schedule or, you know, taking phone calls. So we have an app that we use that, you know, is our CRM and everything comes out of there, the younger guy, the millennial is much more adept to navigating that app and a lot more fluent with it, so that's helpful.
Max [:And then pairing them together where, you know, the guy that's driving and doesn't like to use Google Maps to get where we're going, you know, at least the navigator, the millennial has that, you know, has that proficiency.
Brad Herda [:So you should have told me 10ft sooner to turn right. Cause I can't move the truck in the trailer that quickly. Thank you very much.
Max [:Yeah.
Brad Herda [:It's not instantaneous. Turn right. I need to know so I can slow down and not kill somebody.
Max [:Right now.
Brad Herda [:That's a whole different conversation inside the cab of that truck, I'm sure.
Max [:Yeah. Right.
Steven Doyle [:Absolutely.
Brad Herda [:So on that side of it.
Max [:Right.
Brad Herda [:So there's. There's a little bit of difference. Are you. And you have that commonality of operational effectiveness. Go live out the mission. The mission is to go take care of that client, get in, get out, come back and make sure that everybody's as good or better than when you got into it. Right. And that military background, I'm.
Brad Herda [:I would believe, has helped support that and keep that camaraderie or at least that level of continuity or expectation inside your business as you continue to grow and maybe not be able to have the luxury of being. Having somebody in the military family to support you in certain roles because they're just not available or they don't want to. Wherever. What do you see as an opportunity for you to attract or retain non military folks into your business to support your mission of sustainability and repurpose, recycle, resource, reuse with that, with. With JDOG and what you're trying to do for your community?
Max [:Well, it's definitely. It's. It's hard. Oftentimes, it's. It's hard work. It's hard labor. You know, moving armoires out of a, you know, second story bedroom is not. It's not easy.
Max [:And we have. I. But we have the. We have the idea that we can do something good with that kind of stuff. Right. So I think attracting a younger workforce is going to be key because, you know, it is. Happens to be entry level work. Right.
Max [:I mean, it's not starting out. It's, you know, it's not the best pay to start out. Right. It's not a big business with a lot of, you know, skills needed or required, apprenticeships and all that kind of stuff, to grow career wise. But there is potential, especially starting out as a small business. There's potential for growth as the company grows, there's going to be needs for leadership positions, whether it be the crew chief on the truck, an operations manager. If we expand to the point where we're taking on another territory or taken on another franchise, because carpet cleaning and floor care is another thing that's available through JDog, then, you know, need an operations manager. I actually did bring on someone who's just recently retired, working for the army, and he's all sales, you know, he's a great, great sales guy.
Max [:So, you know, and then that could be, that could open up for more also younger generation that maybe that that's what they want to do is just their go getters and want to work on commissions. And if, you know, if they're working hard, they can bring in more business and work the sales side. So there's opportunities in different areas. And then obviously as a resume builder, like, you know, I have this 18 year old, you got to be 18 year old to do junk removal. It's just state law. It's considered a hazardous duty. But, you know, to a kid starting out, like, I understand this might not be a career that you want to stay in, work hard, and that is the next employer might say, wow, I mean, you did all that. You did all this, right? You know, you know, knowing and knowing your, knowing your metals and being able to sort through ferrous and non ferrous metals and that kind of thing.
Max [:So working towards something that is working hands on in the trades, I think it'd be a great jumpstart. You got to work hard.
Steven Doyle [:Yeah, absolutely. So I kind of want to pivot just a little bit. Let's. I want to talk more about, and it's, and I have this perception is that businesses in the trades don't always know where they can tap into veterans that actually have skills in the mess, the gamut of trades that exist. So in your right, so in your experience. And I don't know if that's true. That's just my perception is employers don't know where to turn to. Where are places they can turn to veterans that are actively looking for.
Steven Doyle [:From a recruiting standpoint, how can we recruit active, you know, veterans that are actually looking to be in the blue collar space?
Max [:Well, I mean, there's believe annually there's a, there's around in the Detroit area, I know of a vet fest where people can, you know, set up recruitment booths, and it's all centered around hiring veterans. You know, you've got career fairs that, you know, a lot of companies can sign up for. I'm personally new in the business and have really got word of mouth. Has been really where I found one of my guys and the other one, you know, I. I advertise on a zipper gritter and. Yep, you know, or indeed, and show veteran preference because, you know, we're a veteran based company, so, you know, that's our, that's our goal. It's not required. And certainly I would love to develop youth that, that are, you know, maybe they're taking off time from, you know, high school and trying to figure out what they do.
Max [:Maybe they're military minded and one would like to join and see what it's like to work with people who have been in the military and can share our experiences.
Steven Doyle [:Right.
Brad Herda [:Yeah, it is a very. So were you. Are you combat veteran as well?
Max [:I was in the Navy.
Brad Herda [:But were you in combat at all or not?
Max [:We were. We were in. We were in, uh, hazardous duty, um, okay. Area. Yeah. Right at the beginning.
Brad Herda [:From my experience, uh, even though everybody's military, you all have a different level of respect for each other based on where, you know, deployment or not deployed or combat and all those other fun things, and then you have all branches. Yeah.
Max [:I give a hat tip to all the troops that were boots on the ground doing. Doing the, uh, you know, the door kickers, those, those types that they're putting there, they're in the middle of it every day and night, having rockets going over their heads that, you know, while they're trying to sleep. That wasn't us. You know, I'm so. You're right. 100% respect for those that have been in that situation. And I was lucky then. The navy just doing circles in the Red Sea.
Max [:Not that there isn't hazards with that, of course. Um, and being a. I was a firefighter on the ship, so always being prepared for. Yep. You know, in the navy, it's fight the ship. You know, you got damage or, you know, you have flooding or fire. That is, uh, that's what we have to do, fight the ship, because no one's going to rescue you out there, so.
Brad Herda [:Right, right. What. What brought you down your entrepreneurial journey, Max?
Max [:What.
Brad Herda [:What took you down this path of saying, hey, I want to do this on my own and make this all happen?
Max [:Well, kind of a long story. And it was after 15 years of working for the army, I went on vacation, and this was, you know, COVID really impacted our, our lives, you know, like it did everybody. And the office environment, the. Or the laboratory environment that we were in. It really changed things and, you know, changed the landscape. It really kind of brought me to the point where I realized that I didn't really have a lot of control over my destiny. Just had to follow orders. So started thinking about ways to set myself up for taking more control of my own life and what I wanted for the future.
Max [:At my 20 year mark, I was ready to go. I got into JDOG through some friends of mine from the fire department that had started their own. And, you know, this was after coming back from vacation during work. You know, it was a vacation that it just kind of changed me. And I saw somebody that had started their own enterprise renting their cars. You know, she. This was in Hawaii, so she rented Turos. And when I picked the wrong car that wasn't gonna work for our family, she said, hey, I'll hook you up with the right one.
Max [:And we went back to her house, and she must have had 18 cars on her front lawn that, you know, it was obvious she probably started from one, one extra car. And I thought, you know, I mean, she just started small. She started, you know, she just took the risk. And it. It's obviously worked out for. So that was the, that was kind of the driver for. It was, you know, you don't have to go jump into a multi million, million dollar business. I mean, that's impossible.
Max [:So where do you start? You just start small and go from there. This was a great opportunity.
Brad Herda [:How are you feeling about the impact you're making on your community and your environment and the purpose, and how are you feeling with that journey thus far?
Max [:I'm really. I'm really excited about it. I'm proud to be a part of it. We have been sort of recognized, I guess, by one of the magazines that in Clarkston called Clarkston Living because it's visible. It's, you know, we have happy customers that are, that are thankful that they are able to do something with their items that are reusable, that's not going to the landfill. And I think that, you know, it's. It's funny being kind of like the. Not only the blue collar guy at, like, the networking events amongst all these, you know, suit and tie gentlemen sharing what they do in the finance world or whatever.
Max [:And I'm not just a blue collar guy, but the dirty jobs guy, but it's. I think it, you know, I'm not embarrassed by it by any means. I think that there's. There's a need for it. They. A lot of these, you know, real estate agents estate salespeople, they. They need that service, and they want a service from somebody that they can count on to be where they need to be. Got a deadline, you know, like, a house is closing, and they've got to have this stuff out of there.
Max [:It's a hard deadline. They need somebody they can count on. So my hope is that the veteran aspect of that is, well, hey, we can count on a veteran to get it done when it needs to be done right. And I don't like to say no, we'll find a way, and if we don't know how to do it, we'll find a way.
Brad Herda [:We'll figure it out. That's the entrepreneurial spirit as well. That's the combine. The entrepreneur. Combine your backgrounds and the differences that you all have within your team. You should be able to overcome any obstacle. You've overcome so many already. And thank you for your service and thank you for doing what you're doing, because many wouldn't even dream about going out on their own or doing their own thing.
Brad Herda [:So it's a. It's a bold. It's a bold leap into the. Into some of the unknown. So congratulations. Yeah.
Max [:Oh, thank you.
Steven Doyle [:Absolutely bold. So, Max, as we. Before we kind of wrap up the show here, if somebody wants to get ahold of you, they want to find out more about JDOg. They want to find out more about, you know, what that entrepreneurial spirit was. That kind of helped push you over the edge. How can our listeners get a hold of you?
Max [:Well, okay, I've got. I'm on all the socials except X or Twitter, whatever. But, yeah, Facebook. There's LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. You know, you can find me under my name on LinkedIn. And you can also go to the JDOG junk removal and hauling.com, if, you know, for franchise opportunities. Just learn about more of it right there at their website. I'm happy to talk to anybody that would like to get in and.
Max [:Or start any type of small business. Definitely. It's. There's a lot that I had no idea about starting a small business. It is intense.
Brad Herda [:There's no doubt. It is the grind it is. And adding employees on top of it and add customers on top of it and all those other things. It's. Oh, oh, those signs. Yeah, we need more of those. Who the hell took my sign off that corner? Damn it.
Max [:Yeah, that happens a lot.
Brad Herda [:Yeah, it's another $7. Not the hell.
Max [:Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're gonna stop with those so much. And, you know, leave it at the customer's yard. But, yeah, we're, you know, JDog junk removal and Holland Clarkston, if anybody wants to find us on the socials there.
Steven Doyle [:All right, excellent. Well, it's been a pleasure having you on the show today, Max. We definitely appreciate you being on the show.
Max [:Well, I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you very much. You, too.
Brad Herda [:Thanks for being here. Yep.
Max [:All right.
Brad Herda [:Thank you for listening to blue collar B's, brought to you by Vision Ford Business solutions and professional business coaching, Inc. If you'd like to learn more on today's topic, just reach out to Steve Doyle or myself, Brad Hurda. Please, like, share rate and review this show as feedback is the only way we can get better. Let's keep blue collar businesses strong for generations to come.
