Are you navigating the delicate balance between faith, family, and entrepreneurship? Join us on this episode of Seek Go Create - The Leadership Journey as we dive deep into Garr Russell's transformative journey from personal strife to entrepreneurial triumph. Discover the spiritual insights behind homeschooling, the innovative RV rental business model, and the profound impact of faith on overcoming life's challenges. Tune in to get inspired by Garr's story of resilience, humility, and community building in the face of adversity. Don't miss out on practical advice for living a purpose-driven life that could change your path forever!

"The road to success in entrepreneurship involves community, faith, and relentless action." - Garr Russell

Access all show and episode resources HERE

About Our Guest:

Garr Russell is the founder and CEO of Fireside RV Rental, a rapidly growing company with nearly 60 locations across the U.S. Fueled by a transformative personal journey and deep faith, Garr has built a community-focused franchise model that emphasizes both entrepreneurial growth and spiritual connection. A dedicated homeschooler and advocate for Christian entrepreneurship, Garr shares his experiences and insights in his book "My Wheel Estate Story," and continues to inspire others to integrate faith and business for meaningful success.

Reasons to Listen:

1. Inspiring Homeschooling Insights: Discover Garr Russell's unique approach to homeschooling that emphasizes heart connections and practical life skills, offering new perspectives for parents considering this path.
2. Faith-Driven Entrepreneurship: Learn how Garr Russell turned personal challenges, including overcoming alcoholism and finding his identity as a "child of God," into the foundation for a successful business and a meaningful life journey.
3. Practical Franchise Wisdom: Get an inside look at the entrepreneurial lessons Garr learned while expanding his RV rental business during the COVID pandemic, with actionable advice on community-focused franchising and avoiding common pitfalls.

Episode Resources & Action Steps:

Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

1. Fireside RV Rental Website: Offers RV rentals and business opportunities for those interested in RV franchises.
2. Book: "My Wheel Estate Story" by Garr Russell: Free download available, aimed at inspiring potential entrepreneurs by sharing Garr’s journey in the real estate and RV rental industries.

Action Steps for Listeners:

1. Explore RV Rental Opportunities: Visit the Fireside RV Rental website to learn more about renting an RV for personal use or exploring franchise opportunities, particularly for those interested in Christian entrepreneurship.
2. Engage in Emotional Introspection and Seek Support: Read "Resilient" by John Aldridge for guidance on managing emotions, especially those lingering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, seek a supportive community or friend to discuss these feelings and experiences.
3. Consider and Plan for Homeschooling: For parents contemplating homeschooling, use Garr Russell’s homeschooling approach as an inspiration. Focus on heart connections with children, incorporate practical life skills into education, and utilize resources like Danny Silk’s teachings on maintaining strong parent-child relationships.

Resources for Leaders from Tim Winders & SGC:

🎙 Unlock Leadership Excellence with Tim

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Key Lessons:

1. Faith Over Fear in Business: Entrepreneurship often requires taking leaps of faith without understanding every detail analytically. Embracing faith over fear can lead to significant growth and transformation.
2. Value of Homeschooling and Heart Connection: Homeschooling can provide a more personalized and heart-connected education for children, focusing not just on academics but on their spiritual and personal development.
3. Community and Collaboration in Entrepreneurship: Building a supportive, faith-driven community is essential for entrepreneurial success. Regular communication and retreats can foster a sense of belonging and mutual support.
4. Navigating Post-COVID Emotional Struggles: Addressing emotional well-being is crucial, especially in the aftermath of COVID-19. Embracing emotions and seeking guidance, like reading "Resilient" by John Aldridge, can lead to personal breakthroughs.
5. Responsible Parenting and Legacy Building: Being present and actively involved in children’s upbringing, even amidst entrepreneurship, is vital. Focusing on their unique callings and fostering a responsible and nurturing environment can build a lasting legacy.

Episode Highlights:

00:00 The COVID Comeback: Fireside RV's Rapid Growth

00:43 Meet Gar Russell: From RV Owner to CEO

02:09 Identity and Purpose: A Personal Journey

03:56 Definiteness of Purpose: Gar's Mission Minded Messages

10:27 Struggles and Triumphs: Alcohol and Entrepreneurship

25:40 Homeschooling and Family Values

33:57 The RV Adventure Begins

35:01 Discovering the RV Rental Business

35:31 From Credit Counseling to Entrepreneurship

36:14 Embracing the RV Lifestyle

37:03 Adventures and Lessons on the Road

42:22 The Business of RV Rentals

46:53 Franchising and Scaling Up

50:34 Community and Faith in Business

01:00:19 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Thank you for listening to Seek Go Create!

Our podcast is dedicated to empowering Christian leaders, entrepreneurs, and individuals looking to redefine success in their personal and professional lives. Through in-depth interviews, personal anecdotes, and expert advice, we offer valuable insights and actionable strategies for achieving your goals and living a life of purpose and fulfillment.

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Mentioned in this episode:

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Then once I came out of my COVID slumber there, my COVID comeback,

when God shook me and told me, Hey, it's time to get serious.

Uh, that's when fireside really took off.

We went from 12 locations.

two years ago to, I think we have under 60 now.

We're adding about five per month.

It's all about community.

People want community.

People need community, and so he showed me that with fireside.

It's create a community.

So we call ourselves fire starters.

Um, uh,

Ever wondered how an RV can become more than just a vacation getaway.

Meet Gar Russell, founder and CEO of Fireside RV Rental.

Starting as a new RV owner himself, Gar transformed his personal

challenge into a groundbreaking business, creating the nation's

first RV rental management company.

Having lived in an RV for over six years, myself, most people know that I'm

coming to you now from my RV, Theo, I'm particularly excited to discover how Gar

has driven the RV rental industry forward.

Join us as we explore his journey from personal hardships to entrepreneurial

triumph, Gar, welcome to seek, go

Hey Tim, great to chat with you and hi Mr.

Theo.

Yeah, we we are in Theo.

I don't, do most people name their RVs?

You know, we started doing that with our rentals and we found

that it really helps our renters.

It helps us to keep our fleet straight.

It helps our renters to kind of connect with the unit and I named my

RV the M3, the mobile memory maker.

We're glorying it

Gloria and I will have a faith discussion about things is, uh, we just finished up

and, and Theopolis or Theo or theology, of course, is basically the root word for

being in God or friend of God, et cetera.

And so we said, you know what, we're just going to be in God.

At all times, that's our home, our office So, so welcome to Theo

that are, uh, listening in here.

So, hey, before we get going too far though, Gar, I want to kind of

give my First off is either an easy softball question or it's a tough one.

So I'm gonna give you a choice Which one do you want to answer first?

What do you do?

Or who are you?

I definitely got to go with the who are you?

answer it.

Who are you

you know, that's one thing that the Lord convicted me of a couple years ago as

I was putting so much weight in what I do, especially as an entrepreneur,

I was really defining myself.

By my success.

And you know, I would always say build scale and sell.

That's the model.

That's what I do.

and then finally God slapped me upside the head and he said, why

do you wanna keep starting over?

All you're doing is building, scaling and selling to prove to yourself and

the world how awesome you think you are.

and that's when really, he just took me on this identity journey.

Of who I am, right?

And so, that's why I definitely got to pick that question because, man,

I am a son of the Most High God.

And, when we know that all, everything flows out of that, that it's in Him that

we live and breathe and have our being, then man, everything else is, is set up

in much more proper manner because we're operating out of we are as a child of God.

So yeah, that's who I am.

I'm a child of the King, man.

Yeah.

And then everything flows out of that, right?

Because then it's, now that I know that, then I can say, okay, well, since

I'm a child of the King, all right, King, what do you got for me to do?

What's my purpose?

And then he can show me, okay, well, this is what you do.

And like we teach our kids in our homeschooling, it's to

know God and make him known.

And I could go on and on and on.

So I'll leave that as my answer

right there.

So the cool thing, I know there's people, a lot of people listen to the audio,

there's people that are going to be watching this video, you're wearing a

shirt that says definiteness of purpose.

Does that tie into who you are?

yeah, I grabbed this out of a Napoleon Hill book that I read years ago.

this was actually a clothing line.

I started with it's called mission minded messages and it's just all messages on

clothing It's funny because I started this I don't know how many months ago

and I just had my first sale last night.

I was telling my kids I just sold a hat online you know And it's funny because

the hat that I sold is a hat that says, Hey, y'all on it, you know, being down

in the south now, everyone says y'all.

So the first hat I sold out of all my clothing was like the one that

had the least amount of mission behind or purpose behind the

words.

But

Well, that.

to say,

Yeah, that might tell us something about where culture is and where people

are that they, maybe not everyone is into the definiteness of purpose

and identity and things like that.

But I want to, I think it's so valuable to kind of have this

discussion before we go into business and some of your entrepreneurial

and your leadership journey and how you define success things like that.

And Gar, it's, you mentioned the word identity.

Which, when I hear that word, it's like bells go off in my head, because

I've recognized in myself that I've probably carried some of that

what you do pride for many years.

And what's interesting, and we don't need to go over my story, we're talking your

story today, is that I really do believe that Lord, We'll strip all that away.

Either we will take it away or it will be stripped away.

pride?

I mean, do you do you have a little bit of a, I don't know.

Do you notice I don't, I'll say your flesh or something, doing something when people

ask you about being an entrepreneur or business owner, are there some things

that well up in you that you recognize may not be super healthy at times?

yeah, you know, that's actually the biggest area of my life where

the Lord's working on me right now.

It's not so much in business, but it's more in my walk with the Lord, I'm very

big into, I love to pray for people.

I love to see God touch people and heal them.

And I love to see the gifts of the spirit flow and just the power of the Lord move.

it's very easy to step into pride when the Lord uses you on something like that.

You know, you walk up and pray for somebody and they feel God's power

or God heals them in that moment.

and the Lord just had us move churches several months ago, and we were

very well settled in this church.

We were right across the aisle from Pastor.

were and during prayer time, we knew that people wanted to pray with my wife and

I because they knew that we knew how to.

claim the scriptures.

So anyway, the Lord's been taking me through this process at our new church

Where I'm basically, I'm nobody now.

I'm all that, you know, credentials and all the Whatever you call it.

It was stripped away.

And so it's even at my Ben's Bible study now It's like I'm just waiting for the

Lord to Tell me when to share something instead of me getting excited that

somebody said something and I'm like, oh man I know a scripture I could share

that I really Impress the group, it's been a really stripping season for me

the last Maybe three months since we've been at this new church and even for my

wife, you know, both of us It's been very interesting the lord is just keeps telling

me You just serve and do what you're supposed to do And don't try to promote

yourself I'm a salesman I mean at the end of the day if you're an entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs, they can sell we can market we can close we can do all the things

but then not doing that inside the church walls just going in and just serving

people And even the people were inviting over After sunday service like the god

god's been showing me like hey, why did you pick that person to invite over?

Why don't you invite that single mom over with their kids?

You know, and it's like, you're right, Lord.

I think that's good.

It's interesting.

That's been part of my journey for a while back.

The Lord told me he wanted me to share and serve instead of sell.

And he, instead of trying to impress people, which is part of what's baked into

my flesh, I just want to impress and I have this desire for significance and be.

He said, I'd really like for you to inspire.

And he said, to do that, you've got to all that.

You know, there, there's an example three of two or three of the disciples arguing

over who's going to be the greatest.

And, and it kind reminds me of kind of this And you know what, I think it's

easy for entrepreneurs, business owners, people like that to slip into that.

Would you agree?

So it really is, especially, when you're an entrepreneur, you're

typically just a natural leader.

And what I found is a kingdom driven entrepreneur usually has

the gift of giving, because they understand that God made you to be

an entrepreneur, to make money, to sow into the kingdom and build it.

there's so many opportunities to step into pride.

Or just to simply, let it be known the need that you just met or

the person that you just blessed or the seed that you just sowed.

And it's been a very interesting, last several months for us.

but glory to God, that's the next step.

You know, that's the next step in sanctification for me and my

journey.

And

Yeah,

that to

thinking, thinking back, I want to get to your story.

I just finished reading my wheel estate uh, your book, you wrote from lawnmowers

to RVs, my entrepreneurial journey filled with faith failures and fun times.

It was a good It wasn't, it was a it was, it was a good read.

So obviously like most.

We'll call it entrepreneurs.

You've had a lot of ups and uh, so why don't we, especially in light of we're

talking identity, we're talking about the Lord doing some work with you and just

in the last few months, which I back up.

Tell me some of the high points and low points of Gar's journey, the things

you've been on, some things that you look back on and go, you know, That

was significant for who I am today.

I think everything is, but what are some things that you

like know they were impactful?

Yeah.

Yeah.

The most recent, that the Lord walked me through is, was alcohol.

it was giving up alcohol.

It, it had been, alcoholism, runs very heavy in my family,

not so much on my wife's side.

and, and that kind of played into it as far as, you know, justifying drinking.

But COVID hit and when COVID hit and, uh, we weren't able to be as social

as we wanted to be, my wife and I found that we started drinking a lot.

the Lord convicted me of that and it was, we quit drinking.

It was a year and a half ago, March, maybe like a year and eight

months ago now or so, give or take.

and, just, I didn't realize how much of a hold it had on

me until the Lord showed me.

And I was actually listening to Tony Robbins, and he was talking about

change and the reason why people do and don't change is pain like pain

is the ultimate motivator in life.

We won't make a change until it's too painful to stay in the current situation.

he said, a good way to do that is to just simply.

up the pain to where our brain can make the decision to change.

So I'm sitting there one day, my wife and I were arguing about something, and

it was probably because I was drinking,

It didn't go to an extreme.

And that's part of what helped me justify it for so long, really was

I'm, Hey, I'm not beating my wife.

I'm not drunk driving, I'm not right, I'm not doing all these things.

I'm, you know, I'm entrepreneur, blah, blah, blah.

But then when, finally when I was like, okay, I want to be done with alcohol.

I just sat down and I started writing out all these pain points, and the

one that got me was, I have a teenage daughter, she's just about to turn 16,

so she's got this social life now, right?

And that's part of the reason why we stopped full time RVing, it's like,

okay, we gotta settle down for a couple years, let my daughter have somewhat

of a normal life until she goes off.

to YWAM.

She's going off to missionary training school here in the following September.

And, the thing that I wrote down was, if my daughter was to be in a situation

where she felt uncomfortable and she called me to come get her, I wouldn't

be able to do that because I was drunk.

And so in an instant, I was able to give up alcohol.

I gave that up, but then the Lord started showing us all the things

that I was doing while I was drinking, became very passive in my business.

I actually had a multiple seven figure real estate portfolio that I'd built up.

That I'd actually built up and sold most of it, not even realizing what I was doing

because I was just keeping everything afloat through COVID and all that stuff.

And, Lord opened my eyes to realize.

you're literally selling off.

That wasn't my retirement portfolio.

You're selling off your retirement portfolio to keep everything

feel like it's still, you know, moving along just fine.

And so man, the Lord just brought me through this beautiful process

in that of, in hindsight, he showed me like, Hey, you, you just broke

alcoholism off your family bloodline.

You know, just the benefits outside of I can go pick up

my daughter if she needs me.

Me and my boy are standing outside grilling one day and he's like, dad, I'm

going to have a beer with you someday.

And I said, well, no, but he remembered me and mom quit drinking.

He's like.

Dad, I'm going to have a coke with you someday.

And God showed me right then how quickly we can literally change the

future for the generations ahead of us.

So that's one of the most recent things that the Lord brought me through,

which was just so, so beautiful.

And there's so many things that came out of it that I

Yeah.

What's interesting about that.

Would you say, I mean, typically someone who has what we'll call

that entrepreneurial gene, they're usually sometimes, not always, but

they're usually have a pretty hard.

work ethic, you know, pretty strong.

I'm guessing that you do.

They also are quick to throw themselves into things when they do things,

they go all but but I have found that they also have what, what many

would consider an addictive nature.

But would would you say that in general and i'm not saying this is a negative yet

I think it can be but would you say in general you've got an addictive nature

that when you latch on to something?

It's somewhat addictive.

Is that accurate

Yeah, very much so.

I would say it's almost like we teach our kids always about

the flesh and the spirit.

You know, and okay, is this my flesh?

Is this my spirit?

And you talk about being like all in and being addictive, it's like two in

the same, but they're different, right?

and I do agree with that.

Yeah, that addictive nature where, even if it's something that's good, right?

Like working on my business is good, but when I'm working on my

business 18 hours a day and I'm neglecting my family, that's not good.

There's no balance there, you know?

So I definitely would agree with that statement that,

So

nature.

or the all in personality is part of what makes an entrepreneur

who they are and realizing, okay, what's what side am I on right now?

The all in or the addictive?

yeah, and one of the things I noticed about myself and this was broken for

me and back in 07 08 when the real estate market crashed was that I,

I wasn't, I'm not really addicted to substance or anything like that.

I was addicted to more.

And so as a business person, as an entrepreneur, there isn't a

place that you ever arrive at.

It's just, you're always craving.

And wanting more.

So my journey has been attempting to be content and satisfied,

which is not my nature.

so I mean, do you notice that you're around a lot of business

people, entrepreneurs, and you might be that way too.

I mean, what's, when I say the addiction to more, what comes to your mind?

Yeah, very much.

So, you know, I feel like it's honestly been about the last year

that I've started to step out of them.

more thinking more of the purpose and the legacy.

And as an entrepreneur too, right, we're always seeing opportunities.

There's always, and, and as well, I think about Ben that helps sell our franchises.

You know, he's 12, 13 years younger than me.

He's on fire business throwing all these and this and that.

And he like, man, guards always it's because, Napolean this, in his book,

he talks about when she h to 60.

It's almost like you hit your genius years where you, you start to get a

little more methodical, you're not trying to prove everything to everyone.

You're not jumping on every opportunity that comes your way.

And, I literally had 2 emails this morning for investment opportunities.

And I said, let me, let me think about it for a little, let me pray about it for

a little, because it's, I'm not trying to prove anything to the world anymore.

Uh, and it's not all about money really.

And you know, my definiteness of purpose, uh, which goes back to, it's really, it's

my children is my main, my main calling is homeschooling my children, raising them

to be like, we already know three of our four kids, like what their calling is.

already being prepared for that.

And that's where my focus is.

And it's very easy though, when we're in the grind of the day and the kids

are stressing you out and they're not paying attention during school to say,

man, I could just go in my office and work and hear from all my franchisees

or people who, know, Gar, you're great.

You're this or that.

Instead of being in the grind, in the trenches, really planting seeds for a

lot of things that I'm not going to see.

To come to fruition, you know, for my children and their children.

That's good.

I want to talk about the homeschooling, but I don't need, before we get too far

away from your, the addiction and what you mentioned with COVID, I, I believe,

and we're depending on how you're counting, we're recording this to put

a timestamp on in November ish of 2024.

People may be listening into it before the end of the year,

2024, maybe even early 2025, but.

Is there anything else?

I believe I actually, my wife and I realized that we were probably

suffering from some depression during the COVID period of time.

And we, we would like to think, I'm sure you and your wife are this way, you know,

you're, you have a strong faith about you that the Lord is with you and, you know.

You know, we were seeking the Lord during that time, but we

were probably in a depression, you know, we, we didn't think about it.

We probably drank more than we should have during that time too.

I never, you know, identified it or anything like that, but, uh, you know,

that was probably the case, but I think we were going through a lot of stuff.

And I think a lot of leaders, a lot of people were anything that the Holy

Spirit has for you to just share with people that might still be in a bit of a.

Uh, funk or malaise or, you know, they haven't come out of

it, gotten their groove back.

I can't think of any other colloquialisms to use, uh, because I think COVID

did a number on culture and, and also anything you want to say to

someone who might still be struggling?

Yeah.

You know, it, it really did.

And it really has.

And there's so many people that are still being affected that literally their whole

lifestyle has changed and they don't even, don't know to tie it back to COVID.

Because honestly, they're not even taking the time to search their heart and say,

okay, why am I at where I'm at today?

What happened?

You know, and it made me think of a book that helped me realize it.

I read this book called resilient by John Eldridge, I'm reading through the book.

And I'm sitting there.

I can remember it perfectly.

I I can remember so perfect right now.

It chokes me up like I'm at, right.

Cause us guys, we're not as in touch with our emotions as our, as our wives are.

Right.

It's just, we're just not, we don't, don't explore our emotions

as much as our, our wives do.

And I'm sitting at a breakfast restaurant with her and I'm telling her about

this book that I'm reading and then I just start bawling, like it's just

something finally, the domino finally tipped over my head I am depressed.

I am hopeless.

Like, oh, I'm having all these feelings.

And it just finally all came flooding out and, uh, and shocked my wife a

little bit because it literally was

just a floodgate just

are, are you a, are you a crier or a weeper or probably like me as

like, if my kids ever see a motion, they go, what's going on, dad?

I'm, that's not typical for me.

Is that typical for you?

So I am the odd duck when it comes to that.

I, one of my, on my mantra, one of my things that I talk about that I repeat

to myself daily is I like to be moved by emotions to the point of tears once a day.

Okay, so I'm just weird like that.

Like I just want to experience life so fully that you know I look up at

the sunrise and it brings me to a tear or my daughter says something

about something It brings me a tear and so yeah Um, yeah, I I cry a lot.

I cry probably I do I really do but but as far as I Identifying emotions and what

I was going through that whole process like that for me I took this book and

as i'm reading it, and even just uh, you know Man, I've got a dear brother in

the Lord of mine that still is not back in church, it's weekly that him and I

are communicating, and I'm like, dude, it's not even about you at this point.

Like, you have a gift to minister to men.

There's men that are missing out.

the other day I'm reading in Hebrews 10, 25, where it talks

about, you know, do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together.

And everybody knows that part of the scripture, but actually it goes on.

It's like, you know, several sentences.

And it says, even so more as the day appears in and I realize that like

I'm hungry and I used to think, man, there's so many holy huddles out there.

Like, those Christians get together way too much.

Like, we've got to actually go out and do the work in the ministry, but

God's been showing me an important part is actually, we need to be getting

together even more as the day appears and man, COVID has done such a great

job of separating Christians, it is.

Of getting people to social media services.

I just thought of that, that free social media services and, and, and going

to church online and this and that.

And so, yeah, I, I share that often.

If you are not in fellowship, uh, if you know that you're not where you were.

Pre 2020.

It's time to get quiet, get with the Lord and say, Holy

Spirit, where did this go wrong?

What lie am I believing?

What's going on?

man, you know, just like, uh, just like us as men when we're when our wives

are, I call it empty in the teapot when the wife is empty in the teapot.

And you have all the answers, but they just want to empty the teapot.

They don't want your answer.

They want their girlfriend to tell them the answer the next day, and then you get

to say, Honey, I told you that yesterday.

Holy Spirit is just right there waiting tell you the lie that you believed,

the moment where it all changed.

And to step back, Christine Cain, if you ever heard of Christine

Yeah.

Out of Australia.

Yeah.

I

yeah, she did a message six, eight months ago about not looking back.

And it was about lot in his family and how lots of wife look back.

Um, and she did, and it became a whole Bible study and series

and book and everything.

And it was about COVID and it just.

Did a phenomenal job.

Google that for those of y'all who feel like you're, I call it your COVID

comeback for those y'all who feel like you haven't made your COVID come back

yet, Google that message and listen to it.

And I believe that'll be to helping you step into back

into life.

think the foundation of what I recognize and I was like, you know,

I was crying out to the Lord and saying, Lord, what's going on?

And all that.

I, I, I believe what was revealed to me, and I think everybody's got a personal

journey, was that I put too much stock, too much faith, too much belief in

what I'm going to call the Babylonian system instead of the kingdom of God.

And, you know, I would say, Oh yeah, I'm part of the kingdom of God.

I'd done a long study when I was at a Bible school on kingdom of God.

So I knew all about it.

But I wasn't abiding in it.

I was still hanging out in Babylon.

And so when you look around and you see that system crumbling,

you go, wait, what's going on?

And you realize it was more a part of you than you really believe.

Because one of the things we have as Christians is that we

still do have it pretty good.

You know, we'll, we'll yell, We're being persecuted or prosecuted,

whatever we want to say, but I mean, come on, we still have it pretty good.

We can jump on and share our faith and all that kind of stuff.

So, uh, that was for me.

I needed to realize I had too much Babylon in me and I needed to be,

you know, kingdom of God where, where I know I've got my citizenship.

I just wasn't really operating out of that.

So Well, one thing Gar and, and I don't know, Where all this story

goes, but I think a lot of people during that time realized that they

wanted to homeschool and do some different things with their kids.

Uh, it sounds to me like y'all may have been doing that before COVID

or went to, tell me a little bit about your homeschool journey.

Yeah, we, we've been homeschooling since the beginning, uh, that something

I told my wife when we were dating, I want to homeschool, I want five kids.

else, I think I said, I want to travel, you know?

And so we, we just got our kid, quote unquote, a young girl.

That's my daughter's friend that we just been loving on.

And that's part of the reason the Lord has showed us why we moved churches.

Was literally we left to go get the one and I was sure was sharing this yesterday.

Um, with our kids don't go to our old church for kids

university Wednesday nights.

And then our older kids go to the new church and and I'll share this with

1 of the sisters there about that.

And I said, man, God showed us why he had us move in and just.

It's beautiful, but yeah, we've been homeschooling since the beginning.

We've, we love homeschooling.

Uh, we have a really unique homeschool schedule for our kids.

Just fun stuff.

A lot of reading the word, writing the word, memorizing the word we

serve at food drives, uh, together.

We just, just fun stuff.

You know, the biggest thing for me that I always say with homeschooling is.

I care more about my kid's heart than, than their head knowledge, know?

So once they get to a certain level in math, then I teach them how to

use a calculator because that's what they're going to do in the room.

You know, once I get to it and I want them to fall in love with reading,

you know, if I can get them to fall in love with reading and just the quest

for learning and, and, and seeing God and everything, you know, then

I've done my job, uh, as a homeschool

parent.

Yeah, it says in the Word that we're to train up our children as they

should go, I think in Proverbs.

And a lot of people have taken that to mean we're supposed to correct

them and spank them and all that.

I actually think we're just supposed to point them to the Lord.

We're supposed to get them in the place where they're walking out their

journey, their assignment, whatever term we want to use in God's kingdom.

And we homeschooled our kids.

they're they're in their thirties now.

And uh, we've got grandkids with our daughter and And I think she, she looks

like she's going to be homeschooling them.

And I believe, you know, and we don't, I don't necessarily want to get political

here, but with a new administration that was just elected, I, I think

we're about to see a massive boom in the homeschool because it's going

to be not ostracized as much, it's probably going to be, um, elevated.

And, um, you know, kind of like I asked you earlier, what, what, uh,

what thoughts, advice do you have for someone who's wondering about it?

They might be fearful of it.

I remember when we first started, we were afraid we might mess our kids up.

This was back in the nineties, by the way, a long time ago.

And, uh, and we said, man, I hope we don't mess our kids up.

We were both products of public school and, but it was public school in the

seventies, which was much different.

And go, are we, we, we homeschooled for a year or so.

And then they went to a private Christian school and we realized

how far ahead they were and we were like going, no, we're good.

We're okay.

We we're, we're good here.

Homeschooling.

But any.

Anything encouraging that, uh, you could give to people that are considering it or

struggling with it, uh, and, but they know they need to, uh, consider homeschooling.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

And we actually tried that with our 15 year old.

She went to private Christian school for about nine weeks and,

uh, several of the classes, she was not doing that best Bible class.

She was the best kid in the class.

And then just through a couple of situations, no, we're

doing, we're doing great.

And we brought her back home, but you know, I w I would encourage somebody

that's considering homeschooling.

The same was.

is I would encourage somebody that's considering starting a franchise with us

a lot of the, a lot of the families that come on and join the fireside family,

working at full time nine to five.

They know they were called into entrepreneurship, but they

don't know how it'll all work.

You know, cause starting a business is scary.

Um, and, and when I have my phone call with them, we always end

it by praying that the peace of God that passes understanding.

would guard their heart and mind.

And so I tell the potential franchisees that I said, Hey, if you have God's

peace, but you don't understand how it's going to work, then perfect.

You're lining up with the scriptures, the peace that passes understanding.

So once you have God's peace, then it switches over to, okay, God, we have your

peace that we're supposed to do this.

So that's been determined and now you move into the faith over

fear portion of the process.

I call it where you step out in faith Because then all the

fears start to creep in right?

Well, what if we mess our kids up like you said and I tell people gonna mess

your kids up You're already messing.

You don't think you're messing them up already.

We're going to mess our kids up, right?

But praise God That the Lord is going to show them through their journey

where they got messed up and he's going to bring them healing and

restoration and help them to be that much better of a parent that we are.

So get over that fear, because that fear is going to come true.

You will mess your kids up, you know, and then really, it's

just taking that step of faith.

And, uh, I love that scripture where faith is being certain of what you hope

for and sure of what you do not see.

And if you hope for a child that's head over heels in love with the

Lord and walking out there, God given purpose, and is prepared to do that,

no education system outside of you is going to prepare them better.

And why?

Because.

Your child learns in a specific way.

Like we have two kids, children who are dyslexic, nobody is going

to teach our child better than us.

Nobody's going to know when it's time to take a break and walk away.

and the thing I love about this with parenting, I'm up this book

right now called loving your kids on purpose by Danny silk.

Uh, and, and it talks all about heart connection and when you homeschool your

kids and you have that heart connection with them, the other stuff is going

to work itself out because it's very rare for a child to go into a public

school setting or any other school setting and get a heart connection.

With one, much less 10 different teachers that they're assigned to.

It's just, it's not going to happen.

No, one's going to steward your child's heart better than you are

when you have their heart, the education piece that comes along easy,

I think a big thing for us is that we just wanted to be responsible for our children.

Children's growth for their challenges versus, and this sounds harsh.

If someone's got their kids in a school system, I don't mean this

harsh, but turning your kids over and letting someone else raise them.

And Gar, this fits in real with the business and entrepreneur, especially

your franchisees that you brought up.

We had our own business.

This was in the mid nineties.

And what we realized was that our kind of rut.

Schedule was the kids going to school.

I mean, you know, they were, you know, 6 a.

m.

is when it kind of got started our day and, you know, 7 a.

m.

They were kind of either getting on the bus or getting to school.

And, and then 3 p.

m.

sometimes later they would come in.

And even at a young age, they were bringing homework home and we're

going, what are they doing all day?

What are they, I mean, this is like a grind for us.

And so we realized it was kind of freeing up our, our, our, our time,

which is really important for.

I believe business, business people.

And also we just realized we were starting to live a different

life than the masses were.

And at some point along the way, you, um, I think your story goes,

you got an RV, you, you, your wife wasn't super excited about it.

And then also, but then later you actually lived and traveled in an RV.

So.

Tell me about that because I believe it leads into the foundation.

I believe it's God leading you into having an RV rental business now franchised with

54, I think 50 plus franchisees all over.

So let's start easing into that story.

you know, that's the God turning pain into purpose.

Right from homeschooling, the pain of saying, Hey, what would my children look

like if I just handed them over or, and that's the same scenario here, how my

first business started and then how this business started as well was literally,

yeah, I'd bought my wife a camper for a 10 year wedding anniversary, went camping,

she was miserable, she said she was going home in her defense, we had a toddler and

one on the way was doing like two months.

And, uh, I threw it up on Craigslist for rent.

I thought, man, I owned real estate and, you know, and I

thought, Oh, throw it for rent.

So I threw it up for rent and within a couple of hours I'm

getting people that want to book it.

And so instantly the light bulb came on, you know, and, uh, I, one thing to the

next, I started reaching out to friends and family and, Hey, I'm renting my RV.

You want me to rent yours for you?

And this and that, it was, uh, it was the Lord taking pain

and turning it into purpose.

That's really been.

My entrepreneurial journey, I had a credit counseling company that I owned for over a

decade, that was the pain of having to fix up my credit after I gave my life to the

Lord, uh, and I had all this, you know, debt and credit issues and everything,

fixed up my credit, turned into me, got fired from my job for sharing my faith.

started a credit counseling company and then did that for over a decade and it's

just it's so cool How uh, I guess to my quitting of drinking story, right?

Pain is the ultimate motivator

I do think God.

I don't know that he brings hardships on us, but when they occur, he's

going to use them for his benefit.

That might be the way I'd like to word it.

And, uh, so, uh, so were you a, like an RVer growing up?

I mean, were you an outdoorsy guy?

See, because my wife and I, we have been in Bible school for a few years.

And when we finished up, we'd been traveling before that.

My wife said, I think she'd been praying.

She says, I think.

Think we're supposed to travel again, but I believe we're supposed to get an RV.

Well, the joke is I grew up kind of in and around the city in Atlanta, Gar.

I couldn't even spell RV.

Like I don't even know anything about it.

And so, you know, you know how this works out a month or two later, we bought

one sight unseen, not far from you down there in Sarasota, Florida, went and

picked it up and gutted the inside.

I showed it to you here before we got started.

And so it's been our home now for six years.

Um, you know, this kind of way those stories get, but were you a

camper outdoorsy guy growing up?

You know, I really wasn't didn't have my first rv Well my wife and I first got

married we went camping with some friends that had a camper and we slept in a tent

And you know and it rained that night.

So you only need to experience that once to know.

Okay.

I'm not definitely not a tenter You And then we bought this

like class C, super old class C.

I think we paid like 5, 000 bucks for it.

then that started our camping journey.

And yeah, we just fell in love with it.

We just, my boy Noah, uh, yesterday was just saying, dad, why don't we

hit in the road because we've been in this house for two years now

and, uh, he's, they're ready to go.

They're ready to get back

on the road.

How long were you living in an RV?

Give me, give me a little bit of the RV life,

About five years.

We kind of cheated though, being that we have an RV rental company.

You know, we had an RV sitting up on a lake in Michigan.

Then we had an RV sitting at this ranch down here in Florida,

like a big, huge 42DL park model.

And then we'd get in an RV and drive between the two and, you know, and this

and that, maybe we'd go stay at an Airbnb.

So, so we weren't the true, you know, hardcore full timers, uh, you know, but

but people, people get on, you know, you go to some of these, uh, Facebook groups,

full time RVing and stuff like that.

People sometimes get ticked if like we're in Arizona right now.

And you know what, we'll probably hang out here until the weather

starts getting warmer, and then we'll migrate north and we might stay in

the Black Hills for a few months.

So we're not like burning up the road.

We're not.

I don't like, you know, I see, see somebody come in, unpack the

grills out, everything like that.

And then I'm like, Oh, they look like they're going to stick

around for a while, no guard.

And then the next day they're packing it back up and they're on the road.

I don't like that at all.

So, but, um, So what'd you learn about yourself while y'all were RVing?

What's something that you like go, you know what, this is

something I like, or I don't like

Yeah.

You know, we, I love adventure.

I love the change of scenery.

Yeah.

And then on the other side of that, we learned, okay, with

homeschooling, like, we can't be packing up and unpacking every day.

You know, we've got to set up somewhere for 5 days, 7

days, uh, so on and so forth.

And, uh, the first winter we went, we actually took my mother in law.

So that was an adventure doing that.

I think we took her the first winters maybe, and then she

didn't get invited anymore.

It got a little crowded, you know, but we did take her a couple summers

ago up to Maine and around Maine.

So that was fun.

But yeah, we learned we, you know, we love people.

We love exploring.

We love, you know, just the conversations.

The other side of that as well as we learned, Oh man, we got to watch out who

our kids are talking to, you know, cause you're pulling into a campground and.

oh, hey dad, what does this word mean?

Or, you know.

Why is that person wearing that, you know, um, so little shocks of

life here and there, but for the most part, I mean, RVing and RVing

community, it's just such great people, know, and yeah, it really is.

what's a,

said, I can't wait to

get back on the road

what's a,

what's a cool spot you went to that you say, like, you know

what, everybody needs to go here.

Where, where would it be, man?

Give us a good recommendation.

Probably our top spot, um, Is La Jolla beach in California.

Yeah, that was just and I don't even think we it's funny because most of

the spots We planned to go like outside of the campgrounds like most of the oh

We'll stop and see this and that like we never did that was my wife would plan

out this great route and then I would do something totally opposite But La Jolla

beach was just something we stumbled upon and there's the sea lions and all that.

It's just right there It's super natural.

There's no like and fences.

And it was almost a little too natural because there's people from like, you

know, overseas and they're like hanging, they're like climbing down onto the

slippery rocks, trying to take a selfie with, you know, a sea lion and stuff.

was just one of those moments.

Uh, Joshua tree was amazing.

Trying to think of this park we were at, it was my mother in

law was in with the two littles.

My wife and I were going to go with the two olders and hike up this mountain.

And so we go hike up this mountain, we're standing at the top, and we're looking

down at the one lane in one lane out.

And all of a sudden I see this RV go by and say, oh, look, that

RV, it looks just like our RV.

It's.

And then it goes by and I said that's weird.

It has the same exact colored bike on the back That is crazy.

And then all of a sudden it must have been completely god my phone rings.

I have a signal all of a sudden It's my mother in law I had parked like in a

tour bus Spot and they booted her out.

So here's my mother in law driving the rv around the side of the mountain

Going, hey, what do you want me to do?

I don't I don't know what i'm doing right now And uh, so

that was a fun memory that was

made

So the, the cool thing about an RV rental business like you've got, let's, let's,

let's spend our last bit of time here.

Let's, let's really dive into some business stuff here.

The cool thing about the RV rental business, you know, we post some stuff

and people were connected with, they know what we do and they, so many

people love the thought of what we do.

They love the thought of being able to travel, get in an RV and go.

But it seems as if very few people actually take the step and do it.

The thing I love about.

RV rentals that you have is that you allow people to kind of try before you

buy or at least to try it out and test it, you know, do things to, to get into,

uh, get into an RV, go to the nearest national park around you or do something

just to break their normal grind.

And, uh, and I just have always thought that that is just

something that everybody should do.

Don't you agree?

I mean, I'm feeding right into what your business is, but

don't you agree with that?

You know, I totally do from a several several different standpoints.

One is just getting out and connecting with your family connecting with nature

uh, the other standpoint is People will go buy an rv And then they realized, Oh man,

this isn't even the floor plan we wanted.

We actually wanted a drivable.

This is too big.

This is too small.

the case is, actually how we end up with a lot of RVs in our man, in our fleet,

because we're a management company.

So, uh, we don't own any of the inventory.

It's other people's RVs that we rent out for them on their behalf.

man, you know, we literally get people with a couple hundred thousand dollar

rv and they're like, hey, here's the keys We want to stay married.

We took a road trip together It was the worst thing where you know, and we can't

sell it because it was a zero down for especially during covid I mean heck you

could buy an rv on a 20 30 year financing So yeah, I think that's great from several

standpoints and when we first started the heart was really Helping other people

connect with the family and outdoors.

And then we realized, man, there's so many facets to it.

And that's part of why I call it real estate because

really it's a house on wheels.

Right?

So we're renting RVs to people that are going camping and going on road

trips, we're also renting RVs to during COVID it was mobile quarantine units.

It was mobile testing stations.

It was quarantine units for power plants up in Michigan.

it's for races and music festivals and equestrian events and.

The hurricane, we have a bunch of RVs sitting in Asheville, North Carolina

right now for temporary housing.

You know, I mean, the list just goes on and on and on.

It's, it's such a multifaceted purpose.

Uh, but yeah.

And especially today's, you know, uh, I don't know if they're, you

call it millennials, like they want experiences over ownership.

So man, what a way to do that, right?

Like you think of it, it was, it was Airbnb, but now you can go on Toro

and you can rent somebody's car.

You can go on a website called Swim Lee.

You can rent somebody's swimming pool.

You can go rent somebody's yard for your dog to run around.

why not rent somebody's RV so you can go experience RVing

and not have the ownership?

Yeah, I've, especially over the last 12, 14 years, have gotten so in the

mindset, and it's also a spiritual thing.

I don't think I have to own everything.

It's not that important for me to be an owner.

In fact, I'm more leaning towards, I'm really a steward over most of

the things I have anyway, that just the name on the deed or title or

anything like that is really not that critical and I would almost.

Like to just steward things versus owning it.

And I think, I think your model really feeds into that.

So give me though, I know I read it in the book, uh, my wheel estate story

here, but give me, give the audience just a brief, the get started story.

It's like, okay, you, you had an RV, you obviously have done some, but at

some point, and you had a, you have a background in real estate business,

which I do think helps, we've got a background in real estate also at

some point you said, hmm, and I know there's other companies out there that.

own fleets and ran out like the cruise Americas and things like that.

But, but, but you had a different thought.

Tell me about that and how that came to be early on.

And give me a timestamp.

When was this?

Yeah, it was 2016 is when we started, and really what it was, was with me having

started skilled and sold businesses.

of the things that God gifted me in is systems, processes,

automation, finding the right person, putting them into a role.

And so once my RV started renting and then I reached out to a couple of friends and

they like, it was, it was on from there.

I'm like, okay, so I need, I need, my documents.

I need my website.

And so I built all that up fairly quick.

uh, and then it was test the model.

So we were in some Facebook groups for this industry.

So just like there's Airbnb for renting out your home.

For RVs, there's RVshare.

com, Outdoorsy.

com.

Those are the two major platforms.

And so they had Facebook groups for the owners to communicate.

So I was just giving value to the community, talking about what I'm

doing, answering questions for people.

I met Kim in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan.

He's like, Hey Ed, why don't you start another branch?

I'll start it for you.

messaged Kim.

I said, yeah, let's, let's give it a shot.

I'll start it.

You'll launch a branch.

I won't charge anything and we'll just I'll kind of practice on you.

we did that.

Kim's still with us today.

And then it went to, uh, just training others and showing others

and it was a business in a box.

Uh, well, back up a little bit.

Then what happened is, so right, my wife is, Miserably pregnant.

And that's how this all started.

Hot going home.

fast forward two months down the road, all of our kids are born by C section.

we go to check into the hospital to have number four, Isabella,

and we're used to the process now.

Hour later, you're back in the room, you're settled in, and I'm saying this

to justify what I'm about to say next.

So we get settled back in the room.

I kissed my wife on the head.

I'm like, all right, love.

I'll be right back.

You'll be right back.

where are you going?

I'm like, well, remember when you left me at the campground?

No, I didn't.

I went to the RV dealership and I bought four RVs.

That's where I was going.

And literally after I did that, the Lord me on the side of the head

and he said, other people's assets.

And so, praise God, I listened and I started renting other people's

RVs instead of buying a fleet.

man, fast forward to COVID when a lot of my competitors went out of business

because they had the payments and the insurance and the real estate, all the

overhead, I didn't have that overhead.

So literally within the handful of weeks where nobody knew what was happening, I

had competitors going out of business.

just sitting there.

I laid off all my staff.

Uh, just sitting there kind of waiting to see what happens next.

And then I get a phone call consumers energy in Michigan.

Hey, we need 72 RVs for mobile quarantine units for our electrical engineers.

So I'm right back to work and one thing to the next.

And then God told me after that, he said, you need to franchise now.

And, uh, I fought that one for a little bit because that's a long,

arduous process cost you six figures.

I'm not, I'm a visionary.

I'm not a details person.

And, you know, so I, anyway, I did it.

Uh, we walked through that, learned a lot of lessons about

things not to do with franchising.

And then once I came out of my COVID slumber there, my COVID comeback,

when God shook me and told me, Hey, it's time to get serious.

Uh, that's when fireside really took off.

We went from 12 locations.

two years ago to, I think we have under 60 now.

We're adding about five per month.

And it just, uh, yeah, it, it and, and that's, God showed me kinda

like we were talking about earlier.

It's all about community.

People want community.

People need community, you know, and so he showed me that with fireside.

It's create a community.

So we call ourselves fire starters.

We have our mantra.

We get together tonight.

We have our weekly zoom and do what we call fireside chats.

And in January, we're getting together in Tampa, doing a big retreat.

And, uh, and that's a big thing.

When people even asked me about starting a fireside franchise,

they're like, Hey, Gar, why would I, our franchise sells for 50, 000.

And then we usually do like a pay in full discount or in house funding.

Gar, why would I cut you a check for 50, 000 when I could do all this myself?

well, for two reasons.

One is you can do it five years faster and probably save yourself double the 50, 000.

Two is, is really the value.

It's community do life with a bunch of faith driven entrepreneurs

are, that have the same dreams and and purpose for your family.

That's the big value.

So it's obviously you're, you're, you're, you're seeing some real scaling.

Going on.

What's uh, what's the biggest struggle when you start growing business like this?

And I, you know, we could drill down.

You brought up, you were hesitant about franchising.

I, I have similar thoughts.

I work with leaders and leadership teams, and I've had the discussion of franchise,

don't franchise expand and all that.

And there's, there's pros and cons.

Give a couple of them real quick that you went through when you

were going through the process.

Yeah, you know franchising once you're through it and it's all set up properly.

It's great It it protects the consumer it it adds more accountability to the

franchisor so it's great in that aspect.

There's a lot of paperwork involved, which is Even to continue to with the

registration states and all that kind of stuff um, thing I learned with franchising

is when I started talking to franchise brokers You As I talked to one of the

top franchise brokers in the nation, and I said, Hey, why do franchises fail?

And he said, the reason why franchises fail is lack of

support to the franchisees.

So that became our top focus with Fireside is how do we support our franchisees?

Uh, and so I have, great staff of people and what we've really

been doing as we scale is.

bringing our franchisees in to assist other franchisees, uh, and it's

just, it's, it's been beautiful how we're all able to assist each other.

have very in depth courses and quizzes to make sure they're understanding the

content they're consuming, and we're just constantly, um, asking the franchisees,

okay, what's your biggest pain point?

You know, what's your biggest success?

How can we help you?

And just constantly getting that feedback so we can better serve them.

And so that's, that's been great.

Uh, I, I, 1 thing I learned, I was at a conference little about

3 years ago called click funnels.

Russell Bronson.

You ever heard of him?

Yes.

So, uh.

And there's a whole nother story there of how I got to that conference,

which was a complete God story.

I'll quickly share a little bit.

Uh, I have reached out to 1 of my mentors in Texas, Josh Latimer,

phenomenal business guy, man of God.

And when I was going through all this pain of trying, you know, the

drinking and the business and all this stuff kind of collapsing, and

Josh is like, hey, get to Texas.

I can help you.

I was in such a bad spot.

I thought oh great He just wants me there because he's gonna sell me a coaching

program or something i'm the one who reached out to him like god told me to

reach out to him I did it and I was a jerk and thinking he wants to scam me.

So anyway Excuse excuse I didn't we're we're trying to collaborate

over zoom Long story short.

I go up to michigan that summer with my wife to this little hotel We love to

stay at in luddington, michigan Well, josh actually has a summer home in

luddington, michigan You My wife and I are sitting at this little restaurant

and who walks in, Josh Latimer.

And so I sent him a message, Hey, we're in Michigan, Ludington,

any restaurants you recommend?

And, you know, I was like, Oh my gosh, you're here.

We sat down, had this amazing dinner together.

And he said, you need to get to ClickFunnels Funnel Hacking

Live in Orlando, Florida.

I signed up right then.

I got there.

Russell opened it with this whole, the hero's journey that we walk

on as entrepreneurs, and it just, I'm in tears in my hotel room.

I have a video of myself just crying just in my beard at the time.

It was like this, I was a wreck.

I just looked crazy.

And, Russell said a business has two sides.

It has the attractive character and it has the operator.

And I realized I'm the attractive character.

I'm the visionary.

I'm the one who can go out and talk and sell and do the videos and marketing.

I didn't have an operator.

I went and I got myself an operator and that, that there in the franchising,

that's where things really exploded is when I was able to bring Stacey,

who was one of my successful franchisees on as our operator.

And she became my work wife and got me organized and system and

all the things to where I wasn't all over the board and just.

Exploded from there.

What do you, um, do you have like a profile of what you

look for in a franchise owner?

And I know, I know the answer is often it's hard to say, but there's

got to be with 50 plus almost 60.

There's got to be some trends you're starting to notice with the type

people that step in and do well.

Yeah, most definitely First and foremost, we want to make sure that they know

question is Gar runs his business based on biblical principles Do you agree with

this and it's and even our advertising god showed me About a year ago when we

started doing paid at well No It's only been about eight months paid advertising

like putting out a lot of money in paid advertising show me have such a

specific message you're not necessarily attracting your audience You're just

you're repelling everybody else So literally if somebody sees your tagline

on your facebook ad that says attention christian entrepreneurs You That you're 90

percent of the people instantly disappear.

so that was one thing he showed me.

And then on the, our franchise application, it's, we got to make sure

that they're coachable, uh, flip side of that, make sure they're not a no at all,

which the two kind of go hand, you know, cause you, someone's like, oh yeah, I'm

coachable, but then the next question, you know, they're kind of a know it all.

And then if they're super analytical, that the faith over fear, like there's

a spiritual side of this, right?

So if you feel like you have to understand everything before you take

a move or make a move, analytical, then I'm probably not the person that's

going to serve you because I'm not going to give you all those answers.

Uh, know, I'm going to say, Hey, this one thing.

And then let's see what happens.

And so those over analytical, literally when I started franchising this, uh,

I had an investor who had three RVs with me at my location in Michigan.

He bought my location from me, but this is where I learned the analytical side.

Uh, he worked for Herman Miller in Michigan and he was a project

manager and he ran this division.

It was super smart.

Did a great job.

He interviewed me for months and months and months, and

then he bought my franchise.

just about put it under, just about lost his wife and I bought it back from him.

Because he came in and he tore everything down and he started from square one

and tried to rebuild and re and, and he worked himself into this horrible

situation because he was so analytical.

And didn't trust the process, and that's one of Russell Bronson's sayings.

Trust the process.

Do what Russell says is one of his famous sayings.

Do what Russell says.

Like, you don't have to know, and right, and it, I love how it intermingles with

the spiritual and the natural there, because isn't that how the Lord is?

Like, walk by faith, not by sight.

Send the 5, 000 check to this person or whatever it is.

You know, it's, it's, it's faith over fear.

And, uh, and I, and it's so cool to be able to coach people

on the spiritual side, right?

Because you can just say, Hey, did you do the one thing I told you to do?

Go do it.

And then, uh, and then the Lord, because one thing that God has really shown me

in entrepreneurship that I love about Christian entrepreneurship is when you're,

when you take that step, just like in marriage or parenting or anything else.

Then the Lord says, okay, you're taking that step.

Hold on a second here.

There's something inside of you.

There's a lie.

There's a hurt.

There's a pain.

There's a wound.

Let me bring that to surface and heal it change the way that you think then

I can bring you on to the next step.

And that's the beauty of entrepreneurship.

It like sucks all of that all into one pretty little package.

Yeah, the, I mean, there's so many cool things I love about the story.

Number one, that you're just in the RV industry and I'm sitting

here broadcasting from an RV and have RVs all around me here.

And then secondly, that you're in the entrepreneur space where

you're helping other people.

I love, I love The community aspect the way you speak about that because

not everyone does that with franchises Sometimes it's a you sell it.

Here's our system, you know the business in a box, but there's not the

community around it And I really believe this is something that I believe is

coming out of Covid more people want to be part of a community and you you

brought up church and all earlier.

Yeah It is the, that physical building, but we also saw some stuff with churches

that were a little bit bothersome back during COVID that it could be

that the future are communities like you're creating with fireside people

that are, yeah, they're independent.

They're, they own their own business, but they're part of a system,

but yet they're all faith driven.

They can come together.

They can pray together, support each other.

I, I love that.

Hey Gar, if someone wants more info, either.

Let's encourage if they need to go rent an RV and just get out of

the city, wherever they're in or something like that, give that info.

And then secondarily give info.

If they are saying, you know what, I'm kind of intrigued by the business.

Uh, give that info right now.

We'll include it in the notes.

And then I've got one more question before we wrap up.

Yeah, go to fireside rv rental.com.

You can click on Rent an rv, rent Out Your RV, or Start a Fireside.

so you can get all three options from that website, fireside rv rental.com.

And then the other website I'd love to send people to is my realestate story.com.

So that's my book where you can just go download a free copy of it.

you can get it on Amazon as well if you want to hold something in your hands.

But if you want to download a copy, I believe we have the audio

version on there as well for free.

I just love sharing Christian entrepreneurship.

And one of the things I love doing is talking to what I call entrepreneurs.

You think you're an entrepreneur, you're not sure, you want to.

There's some things in the book that talk about helping you seal the deal

of, uh, Yeah, I'm an entrepreneur.

Now, what do I do?

Yeah, that's good.

We'll make sure we make sure people have the links.

I popped up for those on the video on my Kindle here, the, my wheel estate story.

And so, yeah, I think it's a, it's a good read and it's a good glimpse into

if someone's considering doing business with you, they get to know you a little

bit more, this has been helpful here, but I think the book helps with that too.

So, Hey Gar, we are Sikh.

Go create those three words.

I'm going to allow you to choose one of those over the other two.

That just means more resonates with you, whatever.

Seek, go or create.

And why that's my last question.

Oh man, def create for sure.

I've really been studying this here the last several months about, um,

being, being created in God's image.

And then to even take it a step further, when we create,

we use our imagination, right?

And I just got done reading this book by Andrew Womack called

the power of our imagination.

And he talks about in Genesis six, when they're, I believe it's Genesis six,

when they're building the tower of Babel.

And God's like, Hey, we got to do something about this

because if people come together, there's nothing they can't do.

one of the words in there that he uses, it's the same word when it

says, when faith, when it says faith is being certain of what we hope for.

So the word hope imagination comes from the Hebrew word yet sir.

And it's just the beauty of our imagination, how we can literally.

just create from our imagination and anything.

My daughter was just, my seven, eight year old was just talking about this yesterday.

Like, so dad, anything I think of in my mind, like I can, I could probably do it.

Like I could probably make it happen if I'm imagining it.

And, and I'm like, yeah, honey, you can.

And so, yeah, create, it's gotta be

Yeah, that's good.

Kind of reminds me, you brought up Napoleon Hill a few times,

whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.

So that's good.

Um, man, what a great conversation, Gar.

I knew I'd love it.

Cause there's so many parts of your story that resonate with me personally.

Make sure that you go get a copy of the book.

Uh, either via his website, but, my wheel estate story from lawnmowers to

RVs, my entrepreneurial journey filled with faith failures and fun times.

I appreciate Gar having the conversation.

Go check out some of his stuff, go check it out.

And especially if you're interested in the RV rental, I think that's something

that everybody, if you haven't done it.

Uh, check it out.

Go rent an RV and get out, just go do stuff.

And, uh, of course, if you're interested in the business, check with them on

that too, we're seek go create here.

We've got new episodes every Monday.

We're on YouTube on all the platforms.

I highly encourage you, especially if you're on YouTube, jump down, make some

comments, uh, let us know you listened, questions, whatever we love to hear.

If you disagree with anything, I'm okay with that.

Had a, Had an eschatology, uh, one recently that it kind of blew up on

all the background because people want to argue over that kind of stuff.

So anyway, love to hear from you.

Please share these episodes is how we get the word out.

thanks for listening in here until next time,