397: Achieving Business Growth through Military Precision- with Ken Oliver

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Today's guest is Ken Oliver. Marine Corps veteran and owner and founder of Grunt Works junk Removal and Demolition. As the owner of Grunt Works, Ken oversees all aspects of the business from operations and marketing to customer service and partnerships. He leverages his skills in team building, training, and recruiting to create a culture of excellence, integrity, and respect.

He also works with local organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Recyclers to recover items that can serve another purpose without going directly to landfills. He's proud to lead a company that is making a positive impact on the environment and society. Ken, welcome to the show!

It's good to be here. I appreciate the time.

Some of the things I think when it applies to a business are, I start with the end state in mind. And I think in the Marine Corps, we call it commander's intent. So every mission that you go on or any plan you put together starts with the end state. This is what the commander, whoever that commander is, could be a general or whoever. They say this is what we need to accomplish. Once we know what needs to happen, then you put the exhaustive plan together. And the Marine Corps everything has an acronym. And so in the Marine Corps it's a five paragraph order that puts all that plan together. It's SMEAC, S M E A C: situation, mission, execution, admin, logistics, command and signal. And so. Every decision that you make in life, you kind of run through those quickly. It could be in a split second that you run through all those things.

What's the situation? You know, when it comes to business, I'm assessing the current market conditions, the competitive landscape. What are my capabilities? And then when it comes to the mission and you put the plan to those, when it comes to the mission, am I defining clearly the objectives to all those, the customer groups involved. And when I talk about customer groups, I also am talking about, my internal team. I look at my employees as my customers as well. It's a different customer group, but I serve them just like I'm going to serve we want to serve our employees. Am I defining the clear objectives to them? And then there's execution, obviously outlining. I need to make sure that I'm outlining specific actions, timelines, responsibilities that are required to achieve whatever that mission is that needs to be executed.

And in business that I'm in, It does vary day to day, the size of the mission, the scope of the work. It could be a demolition project. It might be a, a full house. Clean out might be working for a commercial entity, a residential entity. So all those things vary and have different timelines, different lengths of job and those kinds of things. Those things need to be outlined specifically. But then then there's that back office stuff, the admin logistics addressing, you know, kind of addressing those. The resource allocation: who's going to do what, the budgeting, what do we have and all the other logistical considerations that are needed to have trucks running on the road and a couple employees, two man teams at least going out and doing jobs and then making sure the equipment is, is up to, is up to date and guys have everything they need. And then beyond that, it's a communication plan. To command the signal is the last is the C of SMEAC.

And that really is the communication, which is paramount in all aspects of business, you know. So it's the communicating again, the clear objectives, you know, decision making process, and having a contingency plan, because in the Marine Corps, in the military, you put this huge plan together kind of accounting for almost every, every, possible conceivable thing to go wrong so that there is a contingency, and you try to be as specific as possible. Detail oriented when it comes to putting that plan together. And then the same thing applies here, because we know that it could in the first minute of the day, things could go completely wrong.

But when you communicated the intent, this is what has to happen. Right? So we know the guys know this is what has to happen. And we have to make sure that the end of the day, this is what's done. And then the training and the communication, making sure that personnel are trained properly, they have the right equipment and they're taken care of.

And then there's really two main goals that you take out of that. I, that I took out of the Marine Corps, what I heard all the time. It's there's two goals. There's the first one is mission accomplishment. And the very second next thing that has to happen is troop welfare. So what does that mean?

You have to do the thing that you're doing, whether it's providing a product or service or whatever. The number one thing that you have to do, everything is people. Every single thing in life is people, families, people, businesses is people, whether it's providing a product or not, it starts with the people that are doing those things and making sure that they are taken care of and served as a customer group from whatever managerial level or ownership level that has to happen as well.

And that, that troop welfare piece of it is a very, it takes a backseat a little bit to mission accomplished, but, right there next to it. So I would say those are the lessons that of all the things that I've taken out that are applicable to what I do in business, those are the things that really resonate with me the most.

And so having a stable culture behind the scenes so that you can provide really high level service to the customers that you have in the community is where everything really starts. And then there's the training and development push of of mine. And what that looks like in our organization is not just me sitting, standing in front of a group of guys and telling them this is how we do it. This is what we do. But bringing in experts in different fields, whether it be safety, even driving or recycling what, you know, all these different aspects of this business that we're in is the junk removal business, really, I love to hone in on each specific portion of it. Bring an expert in if it's not me, and then have my guys and including myself learn from the best in the business and the kind of peripheral, businesses that we work with as well. So that's part of it.

The other part is, you know, what do we do? I mean, really, I don't know if it sets us apart. I know a lot of our competitors, I think really all of them do a lot of this, but we are really wanting to be good stewards of the things that we come into contact with. This is kind of our mantra. So what that looks like is if we remove an item from someone's home and it has any value at all in some aspect, whether it could be repurposed or reused or recycled, well, we're going to make that happen.

Some of those things when it comes to recycling, they do have a revenue, you know stream attached to it. Some of them just don't, that some of them are just, we know there's a recycled value. We're not going to get any monetary, value out of that, but we're going to be able to keep it out of the landfill. And that really is our goal.

So ultimately, some of the things that we do remove do make it to the landfill, but we do our darndest to make sure that we keep everything out of the landfills as possible. We live in a throwaway society, it seems like, and so many things so much out there just does not need to go to the landfill and be forgotten about because it can be repurposed, reused up cycle, you know, all those things.

And so we love doing that. We partner with church groups, Habitat for Humanity, as you mentioned on the intro, you know, we, we partner with other charities to help them out as well. And we will partner with a charity on different events so that if there are any proceeds that come out of them on. For instance, like e waste drive, any proceeds that come out of those, then we are, what sets us apart with those that we pick this charity for instance, I have a one that we have coming up with organization called Sierra Delta. We're looking, we're working on waste electronic waste drive where the proceeds will go to support Sierra Delta, which is a service dog for veterans organization.

And so those are some of the things that set us apart amongst other things.

But that is those are the long term goal. So we're looking at scaling. And scaling right now looks like maybe we have a couple trucks in in other cities about the size of Milwaukee. So that's those are, you know, every state has a city or two the size of, of Milwaukee, and those are the communities that I really want to focus on.

I think I understand how to serve. Especially in the region in the Midwest. I think we have a good understanding of what is necessary and how to do, how to properly serve a community of our size. And so that is the long term goal. Putting the structure to that is really what I'm working on day to day right now so we can get there. And then ultimately it's not just going to be junk removal and demolition as an offering of what I'm wanting to do. I really have been in this home services thing for the last couple of years. And I really, I found it interesting. It's been about two and a half years now that I've been in home services and I, I, it's a, it's a very satisfying, fulfilling industry to be in.

And there are so many things that happen. In home services. And so there will be other offerings. We I'm honing in on what those things will look like long term. Right now we know junk removal and demolition for sure. And then there may be some other home services that are provided. But we're going to put that structure here in Milwaukee area first before we start taking it out on the road. So that's the goal. Yep.

I think when it comes to business, really, seeking out a mentor in business is something that I've missed out on. And that's why, I mean, that's how you and I know, people now that we know each other through groups where there are mentors in there for me. And I'm a 50 year old guy now, and I, never really had that mentorship.

So I would say seek that out and I do tell, the young guys in my life now, I do say seek that out. You know, and if it's not going to be me all the time for these young guys that are in my life or my kids and that kind of thing, but certainly I think in business, it's good to have someone who has more experience and more wisdom, and just in business and industry in general, so that you can maybe avoid some of the pitfalls and have some, you know, you have some ideas of your own, bounce them off someone who knows more. That's what I would say.

So in your world, how does that look? How does business development look and what are the biggest challenges and pitfalls that you're seeing?

And so, it's an investment that people are making and there isn't an immediate return on investment when working with us because it's oftentimes that longterm establishing trust in establishing the brand in the marketplace for companies and organizations. So it is, a long, slow sales process.

So the approach that we take is very much focused on thought leadership and showcasing our expertise in order to establish that trust. So that when our ideal client is in enough world of pain and hurt, they feel confident in moving forward to start doing business with us. Now, that being said where there's also a lot of challenges that we face because I would say our industry, especially when it comes to digital marketing it's fairly low barrier to entry.

So, you know, someone could have not even having any education, like formal education, but just say, Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to start being a social media manager, or I'm going to build websites. And, and they do that, they don't understand, strategic positioning and they don't understand the true value of the services that they're offering.

And so some companies that are ready to move forward and hire, you know, marketing, digital marketing services look at the price point as, Oh, that's, that's lower investment than what this other company is willing to charge. But then at the end of the day, they're not happy with the results.

And so that, that creates additional barriers for me to really prove the expertise and the value that we're able to bring at the end of the day. In addition to it's a long sales cycle. So yeah, those are, those are the challenges that I'm facing.

And I also know there's AI, which is significantly disrupting our industry. But it goes back to understanding the strategy around the tools. You know, you can, AI can build a website for you, but how do you know it's, it's being done the right way for like a Google search engine optimization perspective. How do you know that it's conveying the right message? It's going to connect and resonate with your ideal customer. That it's set up for proper, you know, conversion optimization. So how much do you want to trust the AI tools versus looking at, you know, the expertise and being strategic about the moves that you're making to really, you Get your brand in front of that ideal customer.

There's one person that's ultimately saying yes, but you have other people that are influencing that decision. So you kind of have to make sure that you're touching your messaging and understanding the pains of all the decision makers involved.

And it's typically a longer sales process as I spoke to earlier. So you have to understand, you know, that quick buy, quick decision turn around philosophy. Like I need an answer now and I'm really ready to buy today or in the next 24 hours versus B2B. I'm doing my research, I'm evaluating my options, I'm having internal conversations, and then I'm making a buying decision.

So it's just longer approach.

It's click, call, schedule, you have it done. In the B2B what channel, you know, is it, what channels are you using? It's not Google. It's not Google. It's, or it's, or is it, and what does that look like and what's the difference?

So, you know, some people might be listening to podcasts. And that's how they get their information. And, and then they have their loyal listeners to some channels. So they, those are deemed to be, to be influencers. Me personally, I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. You know, some folks sometimes it is Facebook depending on the culture, the industry, you know, and where, what, what we try to do is find out where is that ideal customer and everyone that looks like that ideal customer ultimately hanging out and who's influencing their buying decisions.

There isn't a one size fits all.

You have to be using it. 100%. So well, let's see. Any, any final words of wisdom that you'd like to leave with our listeners here, Ken?

And what I mean by that is when I have someone that comes in that I'm working closely with, shoulder to shoulder, it's an immediate you know, I say, I say it to the guys almost every day. I love you. Thanks for what you're doing. And that's, that's where I start. And I think that if it goes a long way to, to build trust and respect for each other, I'm not a guy who says you have to earn my respect.

I give love and respect freely. And that's what we bring to our team into the, into the customer base out there as well. So it may seem a little bit odd, I think sometimes to hear, but that's what I would leave us with today.

If you have a burning marketing or relationship question, reach out. I'd love to answer it on the show. And as mentioned before, let's connect on LinkedIn. I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Hope you enjoyed today's show, and I want you to go out there and get noticed.