How a Small-Town Towing Owner Built a Lasting Legacy

And so I started actually fostering.

I have fostered my first foster child that's been in like 70 different foster homes.

I pretty much made the decision like this is the last home that he'll have to live in. So be his family. Brandon Church is a bold, growth-driven entrepreneur and multiple business owner. Drawing from his journey of transforming a small family towing company into a thriving multi-service business. He inspires others to embrace growth, create opportunities, and build a lasting impact in their communities.

“Through the bar, through towing, through auto repair, through the truck repair, through the lock and key business,”

we make money by helping people. We average about growing about a business a year. People are like, "What's your biggest goal when you start making money and things like that?" And my biggest goal is... Hey, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.

It's not over, I'm telling how weird! The living your legacy podcast, for those who live to live a legacy. That's extremely great! That's awesome, that's awesome, that's awesome! Oh, that is sensational, too!

To open it, Chicago is the way you say, Paul, is revocers not on the planet. You can live your dreams! Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast, where we talk to some of the greatest entrepreneurs here that come down to our studios. So I've got a privilege to talk to another great entrepreneur that's come down here from Northern Idaho, and let's get to know them together.

“Yeah, what's your name, where you from, and what do you do?”

Yeah, my name is Brandon Church. I'm the owner and CEO of Jim's towing an auto repair, also the pioneer lodge, bees, lock and key, and Jim's truck repair as well. All right, so you got trucking and kind of community. Yeah, so Northern Idaho was Northern Idaho like... It's small, it's great, it's pretty small, great, a lot of great people there.

Sounds like a big truck kind of place. Yes, yeah, yeah, where we live in between two mountain passes, so a lot of, a lot of different business in that, and that. All right, and so it tells us about your business, you listed it off a lot, right? So you kind of like the serial entrepreneur, you got several businesses, one was towing and repair current, so it tells us about that. Yeah, so I really, I've always had a passion for helping people as starting off as a 9-1-1 dispatcher, working my way up, and then taking over our family business, and and turn it into what it is today.

I've always, through that, I've always enjoyed helping people, and now I can help people, and, you know, in multiple ways, like my employees and the customers that we service.

So you were a 9-1-1 dispatcher? Yes. Wow. Yeah, you're the guy, 9-1-1, how can I help you, right? Yeah, yeah, if I was, and how long did you do that for? I did that for seven years. Seven years, wow, so in Northern Idaho, you get a lot of crazy calls, like the whole spectrum? Yes, yeah, a little bit of everything. I started my 9-1 career at the Mineral County Sheriff's Office over in Montana, so we live right on the Idaho Montana border, and so that's only like an hour and a half from where I grew up. Yeah, you got a nice voice, calm demeanor, you know, kind of the kind of guy I want to talk to.

I don't call a 9-1-1-1-1. Yeah, so, and then you left that, and you joined the family business, right? Yes, how many generations has this family business been going for? Two, so I'm the second. For years, second generation. No, right. So, pressure's on, right, and how's it been going? It's been going great. It's been, it's been amazing. When the business was handed to you, how was the business? Was it, was it study customers? Was it on the downhill? Your dad was retiring? Like, what, what did you get handed to? Yeah, so he, it had been going good. I mean, he, he put his blood sweat and tears into it. He did a great job.

Um, it just, I always wanted to, I always wanted to make it more, to make it better, to grow, to do all kinds of things. And so, so we did.

“That's, that's what we, my, again, I wanted to, one of people are like, what's your biggest goal when you start making money and things like that?”

And in my biggest goal is to be able to help people, like, I've, like, I never thought was possible. Like, that's, that's, you know, to, I mean, that's, that's what I live for. That's, that's, you know, to give the, to give my foster son tune, soon to be a, I had, the kid I'm adopting, to give him a life that, you know, he wasn't going to have or wasn't possible for him. Yeah. So, how, how's your business made money? Tell us, uh, what's, what's, what's going on? How do you do it?

Okay. I mean, you know, from serving somebody at our bar, a drink after they've had a hard day or, so, so, so in repair, you're not, you're not the guy towing from pocket tickets.

Oh, no. Okay. So, well, so sometimes we could be, you know, from, if they, their vehicles been impounded by the police or, or they got an accident or, but a lot of, a lot of our businesses, just people that broke down. Nice. Well, you best, that's great then. And so, I'm at side of the road. I give you guys a call or am I giving you a call and they call you. It depends. There's where we have several different avenues. We work with several different insurance companies and different partners that we have.

So, so, we get a wide variety of, of how we get our business. So, you know, it could be broke, somebody's broke down and they googled us.

“Yelp. I mean, any of that kind of stuff. Okay. And you said, lock and key, what was that one?”

Yeah. So, there are sounds like an escape room, but no. Well, good evening though. So, there are lock and key business. So, they're one of a good friend of mine and I came up with a great idea. We always come up with great ideas together. But we're like, one of the local, I was talking to him one day and I was like, so our only locksmith here in the Silver Valley area actually went just recently, like close the doors due to some health issues and stuff. And so, that left our Silver Valley with no locksmith at all. And I was kind of like, well, that's, you know, that's a market where we could have employees in support of, you know, kind of the same stuff that I do with the bar and you're telling company and the auto shop.

All that more than you would think, like, oh, yes, Barricades. All right. I've got him my house. Yes. Yeah. Yep. And that's, so that's actually one of the big reasons why we opened it is because is because we would get people that would call that's like, oh, I see none of your guys's website that you do lockouts and I'm lock out of my house.

I mean, we would probably get one or two, even three or four of those a week. Wow. Okay. Yeah. And so, or my hotel room wherever, you know, I mean, my apartment.

Other people that call it to just get into a house that's not their house. Like, how do you kind of, you just saw some out. Yeah. Yep. You just check into it. Obviously, of course. And we have like a, we have an online map for almost skeptical on people. It's like, oh, yes. This is your house. Yeah. Yeah. Show me the idea. Right. Yeah. Right. So at their ID, but also you can verify through our, that we have a map in our county that's like, kills who that owner is of that personal. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't charge for that. Like, if it's by distance and my time or yes, yeah, by distance and time, because obviously some locks, you know, especially with the newer, like, your user phone to scan it to load, you know, stuff and stuff like that is going to be more high.

“And then a door knob that was put in in 1920. And yeah, you did it. I mean, that's what he looked on the resume breaking and entering or when you're right for that. Yeah. Have you ever been, have you ever had breaking it? No, no.”

But they got the tools to, you know, open that door, right? Or, or, you know, take that knob off and put a new one on or rekey it or whatever. I recently had that mistake because we were at the beach on Sunday, right? And I locked up my bike and I lost my keys, you know, swimming around, right? And so I was like, no, I had spares, right? And I knew someone that had a spare also, right? But if I didn't, could I call up a locksmith to unlock my bike? It's one of those kryptonites and it's got a really awkward key.

Yes, not a little. Okay. So all kinds of keys, it doesn't matter. Yeah, we get a lot of calls for like, safe. Say, you know, the safe has been in their basement for 20. Oh, wow, okay. Five, some electric cars. Yeah. Yeah. And like, hey, I forget what's in there, but I really meet in there. One of them was like divorce papers. Okay, we're in there, or marriage, something long ago. Yeah, but they needed in there to get some of that stuff out. And so, but yeah, we get all kinds of called gun safes. All right. Yeah. I mean, literally any kind of a lock or key type. Yeah.

“Was the gun safe one when you were a dispatcher? No, no, they don't cross it like that at all. No. So what's the main business?”

Like, out of all of them, what's the number one performer or just as a whole, do you run all of them kind of as their own separate businesses or their kind of like an octopus where it's one business and different arms?

Yeah. I mean, but it is, so tell us about the bar, man. You got. Yeah. So I always wanted, I've always dreamed of like owning like an events center like where you so there's only one business that you inherited.

“Yes, that's just towing and then just the other businesses where you with your entrepreneurial hat on and say, let's do this. Let's jump off that cliff. Let's take that entrepreneurial leap, right?”

And let's build the parachute and see how happens, right? Yeah. Let's jump. Let's jump and hope that we don't hold of the bottom. So yeah. I used to be in the bar industry myself. Oh, really. Yeah. Yeah. I had a nightclub in Northern Thailand actually. It was a martini bar with that we had over like a hundred martinis or somebody else didn't say it. Right. Yeah, really nice. A grew into a concert company, which grew into a, yeah, a music festival cruise, right? And so yeah, I was kind of in that entertainment realm, right?

So what kind of bar do you have? How big is it? And what are your specials? What works for you guys?

Yeah. So we actually actually just hired a lady for my first ever marketing and sales because I always wanted to do with do do more with the bar, but in a town of eight to nine hundred people.

“The bar is not our big producer unit. And so me as the owner, I can't spend 80% of my time on the bar.”

And so that's a big reason why I just recently hired our marketing and sales. And all right, because she's going to go in there and come up with menus and what kind of events do we do? What's working? What's not. We're don't tell John to have for that. He's going to come after you know, John to have her from bar rescue. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's, I always enjoyed watching that. Actually, that's one of my employees Miranda. That's her biggest idol. She's like, I love watching that guy and seeing how he goes in there and talks to people.

Yeah. You got to get some tips. You got, you know, you got to have that locals drink right where they come in. They feel proud of ordering this drink and it's like their specialty right.

Yeah. And because it's, it's hard for your bartenders to know every single drink and we had one bartender that knew all the martinis, right, but you know, other than that, it's just like, okay, if you're going to learn how to make a drink, learn just a few really, really good, right. Uh, are you guys mixed drinks and or just a lot of beers like, what do people drink in over there? Yeah, a lot of a lot of beer. We're, we're a small town, you know, logging mine in a lot. We get a lot of electricity rooms. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, bourbons, right? Yeah. Yeah. All right. What yourself. What do you like to drink? I'm not a big drinker, but when I do have a drink once in a great while have like Malibu or Shusein Grenadine, that's my favorite.

Okay. It's, I've heard it called sex on the beach and I was just going to say that kind of puts me on the islands, right.

Yeah, but I've heard it called a couple of different things. Yeah, that's my favorite because I'm not, I don't like the taste alcohol. So that I'll drink some more you can't really taste. That's a little strange for someone that opens up the bar. Yeah. Yeah. Well, well, that's why I, so that's where I was talking about earlier, that's why I opened the bar because I wanted so first off it was closed down when I, when I decided to buy it, but I wanted to have a place that people could go where the everybody felt welcome.

I mean, and so like in that small town, I've been single. I mean, so I understand like, you know, everybody needs somebody or they need a place to go or that. You know, after I mean, you're talking trucks, right, logging community around in people, right, and every community needs a place to gather and just have a drink and, you know, put your boots up or whatever right. Absolutely. So yeah, I mean, that's, that's great. That you were able to open that reopen that up, right? How's it been doing? It's been going great.

Yeah, I mean, that along with the other. So you don't need to call a bar rescue. Yeah. No, no, not failing yet. That was you. That was you. You were the bar rescue. Yeah, no. Yeah, it was closed down. So, but yeah, no, it's been going great. It's a great. It's growing just like all of our businesses are doing great and growing and we're excited to see where the next five to 10 years bring us. It's really excited. Nice.

“And so what do you do outside of work? How do you unwind?”

Yeah. So about about a year ago, I would say I had a, I still, like I was growing all the businesses and all those things and I still built a void in my life. Still. Yeah, you have like five businesses in that's hilarious. That is what everybody has said to me is like, you have all the stuff going on. You have the world, but I didn't at the same time.

That I, that I, you know, figure out what I'm, what I'm going to do in life. And so I started actually fostering with the state of Idaho.

Yeah. And I have fostered my first foster child for the last seven months. I'd say maybe eight months now, but I will set to a thousand twelve.

“But he just turned 13 this month. All right. And so the foster program, you know, these are kids that you take in from foster homes, right?”

And when you took him in seven months, yeah, he was twelve, right? Mm-hmm. All right. And is it someone that you choose or is it someone that, hey, we got a great match for you. This is the kid or how's that work? No. So, well, so there's a lot of different things. So, I always, like through fostering, I just knew that I wanted to help give kids a life that they probably wouldn't have had or help be a positive mentor in their life, you know, to mean. And so, you know, I talked to the department of health and welfare about that. And they actually, there was a local, there's a local child from our own community, actually.

“That was in the foster care system and had been for the last four years up for adoption and all of his, he was the oldest in the home.”

And all of his siblings had been adopted and they were all out living their life and so I brought him into my care and then I decided I'm like, I can't let him go. You know what I mean? He, he deserves so much in life and everybody deserves to have a home. And so, I, I have since made the decision to adopt him and our actual court hearing as well. I stayed teeth. He was a foster kid for seven months. And then it, well, for four years before before me, it was in my home for seven months. Yeah, so he was at a different foster home. Okay. Okay. Okay. But they do want to adopt him because he does have some, he does have, you know, special needs and he's, he was, he was the oldest in the home, so he has a lot of trauma and a lot of back history, but I'm willing to work to that with him.

That's enough. And so the vast amount of you guys have been able to work together and, and live together, right? Absolutely. Yeah, he has been amazing. My whole family has accepted him just as if if he was like mine from birth, you know, and so, and he's actually with my mom right now.

Okay. Okay. And so that's, that's incredible. Yeah, that's really, really incredible. And how was it when you told him that it is? Oh, he loved it. He's like, so this gets to be my home forever.

Yeah, he's very happy. Yeah, because he's been him himself has been in like seven day different foster homes. Oh, my God. Over the past four years. Yeah. So he, where you would have anger issues or or just wasn't the right fit or whatever, and he would move from home to home to home and, and I pretty much, I pretty much, after hearing his story, I pretty much made the decision like this is the last home that he'll have to live in. You know, to me, this will be his family.

“That's, that's amazing. Yeah. Do you think one day you'd like to kind of hand the reins of some of the businesses to him?”

Potentially. I don't know how much you'd be able to control that. But yeah, absolutely. I've made the decision since I've been through this and seen him grow and I've definitely grown a ton through it. I've made the decision to continue to foster. Okay. So yeah, hopefully that that's kind of my goal is I want to keep fostering my personal goal is I want to keep fostering and giving kids a life that they probably wouldn't otherwise had. That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, what can I say, you know, that is just like something that's so noble.

Thank you for doing that, right? Slowly. I mean, it's also from a small town like they don't have the boys and girls clown. I'm sure that to make friends is quite difficult with everything being so spread as well. So yeah, it's just rough for those kids.

I knew someone that grew up in the foster care system and it's not easy. It's not easy. I could never imagine it.

I mean, it's just, you know, sometimes we just it's at a site out of mind. We don't we don't see that right? We don't even hear it unless you kind of look into it. You know, it's just you forget about those things. So what's been, yeah, you think that you think in life that you get a spanking from your parents or something. And they're the worst parents ever and it's the end of the world. That's probably the 16 year old me, you know, but until you've until you've heard stories about like people actually don't have families or people.

And the void is filled or, you know, you see I guess only half fields that you want to continue fostering, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I asked everyone, what are you most excited about? Could be personal, which you kind of said, but also business.

“Yeah, I'm I'm most excited about for business to see where see where life goes. I'm I'm excited because we've already grown a lot and the past six years that I've owned it.”

We have multiple different businesses. We average about growing about a business a year. So yeah, so but I think more so than that I want to not diversify for the next, you know, few months anyway, maybe the next year in just more expand with what we got. Yeah, then when you're hiring or your staff kind of already has a handle on what's going on and they can just be like, okay, we're, you know, we already know this, right? It's familiar to us. So that's smart. That's smart. You got eyes on a current business right now that you're kind of checking out.

Potentially. All right. It's rocking companies. Watch out. It's coming. It's coming after you. All right. Well, it's been a pleasure to have you here on the show. What do you guys, what do you think of the new Miami Studios? I think it's awesome. It's super nice. And it looks brand new. The chairs a little scary. I thought I was going to fall off when I was filming. Actually, I did fall not fall off to the floor, but I leaned too much forward to my goat. Here I go. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we got it. We got to look into that. No, it's maybe everything I've never been on TV before just the tall directors chairs and they're a little swinging. You know, they got they got a kind of small footprints right and the tall up.

So in every studio might be like that, I've never been in one. So yeah, yeah, we use these directors chairs because they're this you up and then we got these infinity walls. So it kind of creates that that you know you're looking into the void of nothing. It's right. So yeah, it's kind of like this optical illusion right when you bring your back there looking straight into that white wall with the curves. But yeah, thank you for joining us here. It's been a pleasure to have you in the studios and also sitting in these podcasts just me absolutely. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. All right.

And thanks you guys for joining us with talk about blue color America. You know, he's got a local bar, a little trucking company, but he's successful keeps on expanding. And if you want to learn more about how he does that and you know, insist whole fostering coming tune into his episode. But thank you for joining us again and we'll see you next time.