Brody Olson - One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Career

[00:00:10] Dominique: Hello and welcome to Green Champions.

[00:00:12] Adam: Thanks for joining us in our conversation with real people sharing sustainability success stories.

[00:00:17] Dominique: This podcast is a platform for green champions to share their stories and plant new ideas. I'm Dominique.

[00:00:22] Adam: And I'm Adam.

[00:00:23] Dominique: Today we're joined by Brody Olson. He's the sales development manager at Two Men in a Junk Truck. What does that mean? Brody is there for you and you need reliable junk removal service. Today we're talking about Brody's journey into the industry of moving and junk removal. Thanks for being here, Brody.

[00:00:39] Brody: Yeah, thank you for having me guys.

[00:00:40] Dominique: Okay. Take us back a bit. When you were growing up, what were the kinds of things that you thought you'd be doing as an adult? Because obviously I don't think you thought you'd be doing this.

[00:00:49] Brody: No, I don't think anybody dreams about joining the moving and junk removal industry. Looking back though I always liked to be outside. I liked fishing, I liked hunting, doing those types of things. And I always thought it'd be cool to be like a natural resources officer, like a park ranger or something like that.

I kind of grew up thinking something along those lines. And then as I got older, I got more involved in sports and playing football. I thought, maybe I would like to get into physical therapy. So I kind of went down that route and ended up going to college for that. I wasn't smart enough for that.

Switched my major a few times and ended up at Two Men and a Truck. After, you know, I left college and had to get a job and figure things out and I've been here ever since. 

[00:01:28] Dominique: Where'd you go to college and what did you actually end up studying?

[00:01:30] Brody: Yeah, so I went to Capital University. I went there in my first few days as a biology pre-physical therapy student. And then I switched that to business leadership and management. And then there was another business major that I switched to temporarily. And all that was in the span of two years. So, I was going into year three and I just, I had nothing solidified, a lot of time wasted. And I was like, yeah, I should probably just put a hold on this until I figure out what I want to do.

[00:01:55] Adam: So was Two Men and a Truck the first job that you had out of,

[00:01:58] Brody: Out of college? Not quite. So I worked some part-time jobs throughout college. My first job ever was at McDonald's. I actually really loved working at McDonald's. Did you work at

[00:02:06] Adam: My sister was,

[00:02:07] Brody: Yeah, I actually really enjoyed it. And then I was a plumber's helper for a plumbing company locally down in Chillicothe, Ohio. I worked part-time between semesters as a package delivery helper with UPS and I was also a custodian at one point, so.

[00:02:19] Dominique: Wow. You've seen the inner workings of so many, like very critical jobs. 

I also love a zigzag career.

[00:02:26] Brody: Yeah. You learn a lot. You figure out what you don't like. You figure out some things that you liked. You know, I liked things about McDonald's, but I didn't wanna work from fast food for the rest of my life. So, there's definitely some overlaying factors between what I do now and what I started off when I was a kid.

[00:02:39] Dominique: Okay. Then how did you find Two Men in a Truck, which then led you to Two Men in a Junk Truck? 

[00:02:43] Brody: Yeah. I went online and started applying to jobs as the first job I applied to, and they were the first person to reach out. And I got hired the next day and then the rest is history. 

[00:02:51] Dominique: How long were you at Two Men in a Truck?

[00:02:53] Brody: I was there for a little over eight years and I'm going on almost two years now with Two Men in a Junk Truck.

[00:02:57] Dominique: Okay. What made you wanna stick with Two Men in a Truck for that duration of time?

[00:03:01] Brody: Yeah, so it originally was just a, well, they gave me a job offer and I'll accept it until I find something better. But I saw a lot of opportunity, they had programs put in place manager and training programs and different, professional development courses and things of that nature. And I saw an opportunity to just learn and grow within the company. Some things that happened, fortunately timing was on my side and just had an opportunity to join management. And I've been there for 10 years. I've worked four different positions in both brands.

[00:03:29] Adam: What does a normal day look like?

[00:03:31] Brody: Not normal. It's all over the place. We have, you know, in our peak season around 150 employees between both brands, 50 trucks that we're dispatching off the lots. So we're meeting with those guys first thing in the morning, talking about expectations, talking about the jobs that are you know, on the schedule.

What are some things that are happening within the company that are good. What are some things we need to work on and all that good stuff. And then from there it's managing your crews and managing your customers and the entire day. All while with me on the sales development side, I'm reaching out to people and making calls and going to networking events and doing podcasts and answering text messages from my crews and just trying to manage everything as it comes. So, It's a little bit of everything.

[00:04:10] Dominique: Give us a quick, like 101. I think people probably have heard or seen Two Men in a Truck trucks driving around their city. But tell us what Two Men and a Truck is as a business and then how that's different from Two Men and a Junk Truck?

[00:04:25] Brody: Yeah. So Two Men and a Truck is moving company, obviously, we'll move people across the street or across the country. It's all inclusive moving service. So we do everything from packing to moving, to unpacking, to load onlys. If you wanted to rent a U-Haul, Pod or something like that. We'll do load onlys and unload onlys. We've got storage options. We recently started getting into overseas moving, so we've moved some folks to the UK and I think South Africa, maybe one.

And we got someone looking to go to Portugal. So we have partners to you know, make the logistics of that happen. So anything and everything relocation, Two Men and a Truck does.

[00:04:59] Dominique: Wow. And then Two Men and a Junk Truck.

[00:05:02] Brody: Yeah we piloted the program. It's been a little over five years now, I think, whenever the idea first became a concept. A lot of our moving customers were inquiring about removal services. When people are moving, a lot of times they have things that they don't wanna take to their new location and, Hey, can you throw this away for me? And it wasn't a service we offered and we would just refer them off to other people in that space. And it was just happening so often that we thought to ourselves, why don't we just try to bring this in-house and be more of a one-stop shop?

So we were offering smaller junk removal services under the Two Men and a Truck brand up until about three years ago, we separated and created the Two Men and a Junk Truck brand. And from there we went from just doing maybe a couch or two during a move to doing full estate cleanouts and storage units and things of that nature. We tear down sheds and cut up hot tubs and remove hot tubs and all kinds of stuff. Anything you need removed for the most part, we can do. I can't tear down a building, but we can do a lot of stuff, so. 

[00:05:55] Adam: That's pretty cool. Well, it sounds like you work very closely with the customers and the teams in there. What have you learned about the kind of customers and people that you've worked with?

[00:06:03] Brody: Yeah, I think the biggest thing that I've probably learned at the end of the day is that we're all people and people are actually a lot more similar than what you think. Everybody's got different personalities and whatnot. But at the end of the day, I think that I've learned that if I treat people the way that I wanna be treated, and level with them and just be a resource and help solve their problems I think that goes a long way. And, you know, everybody's pretty similar in that fashion. 

[00:06:27] Adam: It sounds like there's this interesting question of like, understanding people's needs based off of the work that you're doing in the community.

So maybe the question is it sounds like you do really great work in the community. Can you explain how that kind of furthers your understanding of what people need? 

[00:06:39] Brody: Yeah, for sure. I, you know, I think that there's many different levels. You know, we do everything from a resident, they find us online and they call in and they need a couch removed, or maybe I work with some property management companies who are doing clean outs and they're trying to flip apartments for the next tenant. Or they've got bulk pickup areas that need cleaned up. Or even on the commercial side of new builds and construction and things of that nature. You know what I mean? So, I think just being a resource anywhere that we can, I think super important.

[00:07:06] Dominique: What's the biggest surprise you've encountered working with customers or like working with people in maybe these like really pressure sensitive times? 

[00:07:14] Brody: Yeah. So I think an example that I would give to that, is that I've learned that people, I, myself included, I go home and I appreciate the fact that I always think my house is super cluttered, right? And it's not as bad as I think it is. I've seen some pretty cluttered situations, but I think a lot of people are really hard on themselves and they think that you know, everything that they have is junk or they're a messy person or something like that.

And the odds of it actually being something along those lines is pretty slim to none. I think a lot of people need to give themselves a little bit more grace. Everybody has clutter and I think people, tend to get in their own heads a little bit about that, maybe a little bit self-conscious. So I, I've definitely learned that within the community.

[00:07:51] Dominique: It's cool to think about like your career trajectory while so varied and like maybe at times maybe, I imagine it could have felt zigzagged. You're like, I don't know what I'm building towards. But thinking about like you worked in packaging and like shipment and then you also worked in like the operations of a restaurant.

I just think all those pieces I'm sure looking back are like, of course that made sense, like that fed into building your skillset to where it is now and you're able to go into, I mean, you probably, like you were just saying now, picturing you walk into like so many buildings and spaces that you're called to and you're like, okay, this is what we're having to figure out.

So do you, this is my curiosity of like how your day-to-day plays out. Do you show up blind in some ways to some sites? You obviously have certain things you're aware of 'cause they called you, and then you kinda gotta figure out, okay, this is how much time we have, this is what I'm looking at, this is what I have to fill. And there's like a strategy to pack in the truck. Can you talk about that?

[00:08:44] Brody: Yeah. There's a lot of things that things that go into that. Circle back a little bit, I'm a firm believer in that everything happens for a reason. So in those moments where I was zigzag and I'm like, what am I doing?

This doesn't make sense, but everything comes together and it happens for a reason. And all those experiences have helped me to the point that I'm at now. Within Two Men and a Truck and Two Men in a Junk Truck, I've worked a lot in operations, but I've done a lot of, now at this point, sales related things, marketing things, outreach, B2B, HR, everything in between, right? But to answer your question, 9 times out of 10 usually go into a job blind. The way that we operate is we would set up a free onsite quote. We might get a rough inventory to get a general idea, but oftentimes, you know, we don't really have pictures or a set list of items for the most part. And we're walking into something, formulating a game plan as we're doing walkthroughs, right? Just last year alone we did over, I think 1700 jobs or something like that. So the quick repetition of that, you just become so good at being able to figure out the logistics of it.

My guys are so good where they could walk into a home and say, yep, this is gonna be 1.75 containers. And I'm like, how'd you guys come to that so fast? It's just 'cause they do it every single day, you know what I mean?

[00:09:51] Dominique: I feel like also people underestimate their stuff. Like I've been a part of friends moving and they're like, oh yeah, one car for sure. And I'm like, this is not one car.

[00:10:01] Brody: I'm so glad You say that. 

[00:10:02] Dominique: That must've happen to you. And they're like, oh yeah, I think I need X, Y, Z. And you're probably like, okay, that plus one and a half. 

[00:10:08] Brody: You gotta take everything with a grain of salt. Just the other day I was on the phone with a customer and they're like, oh yeah, I just have a couch and a couple bags of debris that I've bagged up for you. And we walk into the place and it's actually like an eight piece sectional. It's like one of those massive U piece sectionals. And they've got you know, what's a couple bags to someone is actually, 30 or 40 bags to us and it's ah, it's actually a little bit more than what you thought.

But there also is on the other side where people are like, just the other day I had a guy that said, I've got this really big old box TV that I need to get outta here. And in my mind I go back to like the early two thousands, a six foot wide by four foot tall TV that's also like an entertainment stand combined. I don't know if you guys have seen those. That's what I'm picturing. And then we walk into the guy's house and it's literally just a little tiny tube TV, but it was a little too heavy for him to pick up, so it goes both ways. 

[00:10:53] Dominique: Yeah. That's interesting. Do you wish you had more visibility into, like you mentioned you don't have pictures, you go in blind. Do you wish you did? Or is that kind of like totally fine and you're just, you're built for it, the 

[00:11:06] Brody: definitely There's definitely an excitement factor to being surprised. The further that we get into this we will be better equipped with technology and things to make our jobs easier, and we're already making strides towards that. I think having more detailed inventory and photos or video walkthroughs built in with our CRM system could help us out a lot because that could help us be more efficient with our time and help serve more clients and that'll help us. I mentioned we do donations and that could help us carve out time and know exactly what we're doing at every single minute of every single day, instead of it being a little blind throughout the day.

[00:11:39] Adam: It seems like that's evolved a lot over your time with them as well.

[00:11:42] Brody: Yeah. A lot. I remember when I first started in 2016, everything was ran on paper and we had a dot printer that would print out these really long job sheets and there would be like six carbon copies in it, and it would take hours to print, one day's worth of schedules. We might have 40 jobs in a day, and it would just take so long to print that stuff.

And the preparation to get to that point would take so long. And now you just open up a tablet and you click a button, you've got everything right there and it's just so streamlined. I think we take for granted what we used to have, and now today I'm like, man, we are so behind the times. But when you go back and look at the last 10 years, it's ah, we're doing pretty good.

[00:12:19] Dominique: Yeah. I mean, the times move really fast. Especially when you're trying to build like systems for your business. I feel like I don't know I'm, I'm having a hard time with how quickly some of the tools develop and then it's like I'm trying to learn how to use them. But then you have to learn how to teach them and how to like build systems around it. So

[00:12:37] Brody: Yeah, I'm experiencing that on a portion of my job is marketing and there's so many different tools and outlets out there to assist with that. And the second that I start to get something down, it's like the next best thing is out and you gotta relearn something. It's just constantly evolving. 

[00:12:51] Dominique: Yeah, it feels like it challenges all those best practices as a business owner of or anyone running a team where it's like document, organize, get everyone educated, whatever.

[00:12:58] Adam: Well, And just the speed at which technology is advancing, it keeps accelerating, right? So that piece of change also keeps accelerating just to stay on top of here's how I can be the most efficient.

[00:13:08] Dominique: Yeah. Do you feel that push and pull as a technology point of view in the room? Or do you feel like, come on guys, just move with it?

[00:13:15] Adam: Technology has always been just move with it, but the pace of change and the length of which, like a dominant platform kind of stays. For a long time there was just these periods of time and you could see here's the direction everyone is going in. And now it's a lot more fragmented because it's changing so fast. There's less of a hold of this is the established way of doing things. 

[00:13:34] Brody: I don't know why I think like this, but when it comes to technology, I always think that the technology, like the new technology that we get today seems so new and fresh and involved. And I think to myself, I bet you people who are actually in this world are like, oh yeah we've been doing this for 10 years.

We're just now, it's just now perfected and we've released it, but like someone from your perspective might have a better understanding of it than me with the brand new iPhone. It's oh, those ideas, and that technology's been around for years, we're just now implementing it. There's a battle of Samsung and iPhone and where people say like, oh, I've been able to do that on my Samsung phone for the last five years, and Apple was just now catching up to it or something. 

[00:14:09] Adam: My wife will appreciate that. 

[00:14:11] Dominique: She's a Samsung girl Samsung girl? 

[00:14:12] Adam: Yep. She's got the flip phone. She'll never switch to an Apple phone. 

[00:14:15] Dominique: Too smart for the rest of us.

[00:14:16] Adam: Exactly. So she has things which you know, are always advanced. But I think the point there is that one, we're always learning from each other and we're adapting. The pace of that has increased. And if it can help us deliver a better experience to the people that we're doing, that's very useful. 

[00:14:30] Brody: Exactly. I do think that in this day and age, things are advancing and changing rapidly, but it's for like a fraction of a better result. You know what I mean? I feel like it's a lot smaller steps, but that's just the way things are right now.

[00:14:44] Adam: I'm curious, looking back at your career, was there a point when it changed from being just a job to, hey, this means something a lot more?

[00:14:51] Brody: It is funny you say that because every week, especially on the moving side, we hire a lot of people, the volume is a lot higher on the moving side. But every week, all of the managers get together with our new hires and we have a lunch with them to get to know them. And one of the questions that we always ask ourselves, that we tell the new hires is you know, what's the thing that you like most about your job?

And to this day, I always say that I love my job because I don't feel like it's a job. 'Cause I truly do feel like I come into work and I'm serving people and I'm helping people out and solving problems. And I just enjoy doing that. And I do it with people that I really enjoy working with. So I really don't feel like I walk into a job every day. So that's one side of the answer. But the professional side of it, if you will, I think actually happened really early on. I started with the company in June of 2016. And by August of 2016, I was already enrolled in our manager in training program.

I had thoughts about accepting a different position and moving on from the company. As I mentioned, it was just supposed to be a stepping stone for me. But in that moment, our senior leadership came to me and they saw something in me. They did everything they could to try to keep me there. They got me in this program and wanted me to learn and grow. And I think three months in is when I realized like this is what a career actually feels like. You know, It's not actually just a job to pay bills, you know, it's meaningful and people want to see you succeed and learn and grow and do better. And I would say it was probably about three months in, so. 

[00:16:12] Adam: I love that element of really having somebody who believes in you and giving you that space to grow and flourish. But also developing that mindset of hey, you're here to be in service of others and instilling that throughout your colleagues.

[00:16:24] Brody: Yeah. for sure. 

[00:16:25] Dominique: What was that leadership program like, besides maybe some of the internal. I'm sure it's, it's focused a lot on like growing within this particular company. But can you share anything that you like picked up from those courses that, I don't know, was light bulb for you or was like, wow, I'm so glad I got this lesson?

[00:16:40] Brody: Yeah. A few things come to mind. So first off, it is very much internalized for the company. You bounce between the HR department, the operations department, the sales department, and just learn like the intro 101 course to each department. And then you start to figure out your strengths and your weaknesses and where you kind of would fit in, into what department best.

A couple big things that I learned, number one, I was only there for a few months and when you're in this program, you're still a frontline member. You're still, you know, a mover or a driver and you still are working with your peers every day, you just, one day a week you're in the office learning stuff.

And I think it was really tough for me, especially my first year in management to be able to separate. I was just doing jobs with you, a few months ago, and now I'm your direct report and I have to hold you accountable. Those conversations were tough when you know someone, they might do something that they forget to pad wrap something, or they're moving something the wrong way. You've gotta step in there and hold them accountable. And these are the same people that were just training me months ago to do the job. So that was a really tough balance for me. I would say that the second thing that I learned especially within our dispatching position is that you gotta take everything with a grain of salt and take things as they come.

Be proactive and not so reactive, but you've just gotta be able to take the punches and go with the ebbs and flows. And I think that not even just in that position, but with any career or anything in life, there's things that you can't project and you can't control and don't spend time worrying about them.

And whenever things happen, learn how to deal with them and move on. And especially in that position, things would happen so rapidly and you would get so many repetitions with putting out fires and solving problems that a really big problem for me a year ago might happen today.

And I'm like, oh yeah, no big deal. This is how you do it and you get through it and you move on. I would say those two things. Probably the biggest things I've learned, so.

[00:18:21] Dominique: And those feel like very core leadership lessons that anybody could benefit from hearing. 

[00:18:26] Brody: In the moment, it was terrible going, you know, experiencing those things like, but, you know, you can always go back to the cliche of get comfortable being uncomfortable. 'Cause the second you start being comfortable, it's not gonna be good for you. So yeah, really great learning opportunity there.

[00:18:40] Adam: Well, and just having that adaptability to what arises and finding that way to just repeat things over and over until you learn and grow from that. That's fantastic. If you had to think of giving advice to somebody who was trying to figure out their career path, what would you say to 

them?

[00:18:54] Brody: I would definitely tell them, don't be so hard on yourself if you don't know what you want to do. Because I do think that things happen naturally and organically. Maybe don't think about the job that you want, but what is it at the core value that the job does, that fulfills you, that makes you feel good about yourself?

You know, for me, I really enjoyed putting smiles on people's faces and taking a really stressful situation and turning into a positive situation. You can do that with so many different jobs. It just so happened that I'm able to do that a lot in the moving world, in the junk removal world.

So I think figure out what is it that you enjoy making people feel, or what are those situations that you wanna help solve and what kind of careers could help lead you down that path.

[00:19:32] Dominique: I think that is a beautiful end to this episode. Thank you so much for bringing your personal story and journey into junk removal to share with us. How can our listeners support you or be an advocate for the work that you're doing?

[00:19:45] Brody: Yeah, so we're all over the social media. We're Two Men and a Junk Truck, Columbus, Ohio on Facebook, Instagram. Our website's twomenandajunktruck.com. Give us a follow, comment, stay engaged with us. I'm actually the person behind those social media platforms, so I'd love to have conversations with you. 

[00:20:00] Dominique: Thanks so much. This was really awesome. It's cool to see such a creative career direct you towards such like a multifaceted role. And to also hear how they've invested in you and built leadership skills and to hear you be honest about. How hard some of that growth can be. I am very glad you persevered and were willing to grow.

'cause I think those situations are really hard. And I'm very excited to talk more about, you hinted at some of the very stressful situations. We'll get more into kind of where stress is a really big part of moving and how this junk removal is a really cool connection between these kind of like.

Necessary parts of everyone's life and bringing in sustainability and some creative solutions. 

[00:20:44] Brody: I'm

excited to talk about it.

Thank you.

[00:20:47] Adam: Thanks as always. Our guests have found a unique way to champion sustainability. We are here to put real names and stories behind the idea that no matter your background, career, or interests, you really can contribute in the fight against climate change.

[00:20:59] Dominique: You can find our episodes, donate or reach us at thegreenchampions.com. Give us a review and follow us in favorite podcast platform. Our music is by Zane Dwe. Thanks for listening to Green Champions. We'll dig into the second half of Brody's success story in our next episode.