Why I Let My Car Get Repossessed

First off, this is the most vulnerable I have been in my entire life. Second, I read the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad! That says enough about where my mind is at today.

Hello, I am Carl Dunn, and thank you for taking the time to read this article. I know you are worried about this article being about a guy who just can't figure things out. It's not. What it is about is my story, and how I got to where I am today.

Since I was around 7 years old, I knew I wanted to be a business owner. I later found out, that name was an entrepreneur! I have striven each day since knowing that, to make becoming a business owner a reality. During my childhood we started mowing lawns in more affluent neighborhoods that were miles away to make money. Just to give you a little backstory. I am from Arkansas, a little town called North Little Rock. My parents were not on the rich side, but we fared, up until I turned 10. It all went down hill from there. With out throwing a pity party for myself, because it does me no good. We basically went long periods of time without water, gas, and lights (Years). Yea, not fun at all. Also, my mom was(is) a heavy alcohol user, and she would take her anger out on us. I remember when we went to school one day with marks on us(face), from being beat with the back-end of a belt, the school called the authorities and we ended up having a lady come over our house and look us up and down to see if my mom was abusing us. This was in 1993, and the State organization was called SCAN. She still was abusing us, but not noticeably. The screenings were very embarrassing and really uncomfortable for me and my 2 sisters. They actually made us strip down all of our clothes 1 by 1. I was around 10-11 at the time. Not a good childhood to say the least. There are more stories to tell, like the time I got thrown down a flight of stairs with a trash can on my head.

My mom has been committed twice in the past 5 years. She has bipolar/schizophrenia. Sometimes she doesn't acknowledge me as her son or the fact that she has any kids at all. Yea I am doomed, right?

Why am I telling you this? Well, if you know where I came from, you can understand where I am going. It also helps me to cope with the depression that follows me for the rest of my life because of all this. I also want anyone I do business with to know me and my story. It's cool to stop here, if you want. Moreover, I know there are other people who have dealt with this and it may help them to know, they are not alone. You can reach out to me to talk as well.

Getting back to the heart of an entrepreneur! I would go out with my cousins to canvas nice yards to see which yards would be prime candidates to ask. (Prospecting at 10 years old) I would always be the lead, and I would be the person to talk to the potential client. The reason they chose me, is because I could articulate well at an early age, and I knew how to build instant rapport. Really, it boils down to having a genuine human need. We had to eat! During this prospecting phase, I would over promise, and for them; having 5 kids from the hood at their door, it was like my God- they need help. Yea, not all of them said that, but you get my point. I learned and learned, to hit the pain points of a customer's yard very easily and make mention on how we could provide a service that they clearly needed. I also reminded them at 10, that surely if it were to be done, we were the kids to do it. We got up to 6 yards in one day one time, netting around $90 for all 5 of us. This was the greatest day ever, in our short but successful yard business. Oh, I got a percentage and my mother got the rest, it was like 15% for me and 85% for mom. Don't ask, I knew she needed it!

So you are still reading! Wow! OK, I made it through that stint in life, and it molded me to always say, it will not be like this when I grew up. Fast forward to 17 years old. I was about to graduate from high school. I was so proud and ready to become an adult. I invited my mother to come to the ceremony. Yea I know, why should I have to invite my parents? Long story short she didn't come. I know you are wondering, where the heck is his dad? Well he had 5 jobs and never had money or time for us. I never understood that. I still don't understand that. Moving on! I was so hurt and so down about the lack of support I got from my mom and father. I cried in a shed behind my grandmother's house for at least 2 hours. It was gut wrenching and very hard to take. So guess what I did? I went to the streets. Little did I know, this was the worst decision of my life. I basically got into big trouble, and ended up in jail. Not once but several times, short stints, but multiple ones.

Who says these things. I am being frank with you and you obviously want to hear this, because you are still reading. I know some of you will be like, this is LinkedIn, and no job will hire you for telling this story. Well folks, I don't want to work anywhere I can't be myself. My past made me who I am today and I am thankful to still be alive to be perfectly honest. Not all stories and articles should be about glitz and glamour, I hope you understand. If not, I don't give a damn!

So the street thing was not for me, and I quickly realized where my strengths were. It was in people and dealing with people, I had mastered. I applied for a job at McDonald's, yea, McDonald's. I got my first opportunity there. I became a salary manger at 18. I was making 45k at 18, I don't make 45k right now. The owner was awesome and so down to earth, I really gravitated to him and his teachings. We became the number 3 McDonald's in the state of Arkansas, grossing roughly 3.4 million in annual sales. I had the opportunity to go to Salt Lake City for the Olympic games, but decided not to attend. I should have went! Moreover, after 4 years the owner decided to sell the place and as a salary manager we got a portion of the sell. So, at 23 I was cut a $10,000 check, which ended up being $7,000 after Uncle Sam took his slice. Can you imagine, a kid with no financial understanding with that amount of money? It was gone in like 6 months. I still wonder what the hell did I buy. I surely didn't invest it. Man!

The owner showed up one day and asked me if I would like to help him start a franchise. I was like, hell yea. I always wondered why he chose me out of 30 other managers? We starting meeting and eventually he put me on a salary, so I could stop working for the arches. During this time my job was to create the standard operation procedure manual. I would go in to the existing chain to learn how the place operated and document it. The name of the franchise(license) was Larry's Pizza. We opened our first location in Conway, Arkansas. This place was huge. It was the number 5 Walmart before becoming a dollar general. The place was 11,000 sq. ft. with the upstairs portion. At this point, I had drafted, documented, and illustrated all the operations for us to use for training owner operators and their crew. When we opened the Conway location, it started a little slow. Larry the founder hated me. I thought I knew everything and I talked way too much for his liking. I remember one day in the heat of the battle, I said something to him. He said, and this is verbatim "Shut the Fuck Up"! Now, this is an older gentleman who may not like you, but he will not disrespect you in your face either, especially if you worked as hard as he did. I have yet to meet anyone who works harder than that man. You have to picture this scene as well. Larry's model was a buffet and we had 28-30 different types of pizzas on the menu, that would be in rotation during each customer's stay. After the pizzas were carried around the room, and all the request were filled, we would place the rest on the bar. There was a line out the door, we were already over $5,500 in sales for that day and it was around 7:00PM, we closed at 10PM. So, you can only imagine how many pizzas we had to churn out each hour. Larry was there from open to close when we first started, so he may have been a little irritated.

We went on to open over 14 locations. I trained all the owner operators and the crew members. Most of the locations were in the state of Arkansas. We also opened one in Grand Rapids Michigan and 2 in Texas. I loved Larry's Pizza, I used to imagine it having a Bowl Game and having a NASCAR. I got my first opportunity to be part owner in the Fayetteville location in 2012. The partner(Jim), loaned me the money to be a 3rd partner in this particular location. I was so excited to finally get my own opportunity, well kind of. The store only lasted 10 months before closing. It was horrible. Did I mention, this location was a test concept. We did not do the buffet like normal. That was the first of so many mistakes. I was devastated. You know the feeling when you are like, man I am finally about to start flying, and your wings are clipped, then you crash to the ground with dirt, mud, and rocks in your nostrils. That is the worst feeling, even worse than the beatings.

I went on to get a job at Ricoh, where I did okay, but didn't really buy into selling copiers. However, Ricoh was a great start to hone my sales skills and to see how the overall sales process worked. I worked at Ricoh for 4 years before they decided to terminate the sales position. I got a nice severance package. However, I wasn't focused on that. We, (Jim and I) decided to give Larry's Pizza another go. I was always looking for a building and one day while in Bentonville in January of 2017, I thought I found a perfect building. It was on Sam Walton Blvd, they called it Rainbow Curve. This by far was the happiest I had been in a while, but I did not realize how I was killing myself to make this thing work. I would go in at 5:30AM and didn't leave until 1am the next day. This went on until I crashed. When I say I crashed, I completely crashed. Do you remember when I told you about my mom's alcoholic adventures, well, I too have those same tendencies. Each night leaving Larry's Pizza I would go to the bar and hand out pizzas in return I would get discounted drinks. I became a bar rat. One day leaving Larry's I decided to do the same thing, and it was the worst day of my life. I remember it like it was yesterday. I got to work at 5:00am this time, and business was not going well, Jim was not doing well either. He was with his son, who was over seas and in trouble. I was there the entire time by myself, trying to put the place together. I left the store around 11:00pm that day. I went to Dickson St. That's where all the bars are and my favorite past time is. I was extremely tired, and when I got there I could not find a parking spot. That sign right there should have been a warning for me. I left the last bar around 2am that morning, and had way to many drinks. I remember someone asking me "Carl, do you want me to get you a ride" they seen, I should not have been driving at all, I said I am ok, I wasn't. That morning I woke up in my car with the police knocking on the window in the middle of the street passed out. I was like what the hell? I got my first DUI, June 7 2017. This was the straw that broke all the camels backs.

Jim wanted nothing to do with me and we parted ways. It was a traumatic experience to say the least after 17 years of partnership. Since then I have yet to get consistent work and still till this day have not been able to secure that dream of being a successful business owner. Wait! Is that why you let your car get repossessed? No!

I figured the only way you would read my story, is to put a header in there that is juicy! No really, I decided to let my car go because I was not going to ever kill myself to pay bills any longer. I wanted to start over. The financing company picked it up 2 weeks ago. I was outside working and was like oh, they finally came and got it. I knew it was going to happen, but it still startles you when it does. I read in "Rich Dad Poor Dad", Guy Kawasaki clearly tells you to let the bill collectors harass you until you get an asset, I may have taken it a little too far; we will have to see. I got an asset finally, my website and my my digital marketing service.

I have a company called Etavonni Media, and I am so proud to be able to help small business owners with their digital marketing services, who maybe can't afford the bells and whistles of the large developers. I want to make sure that businesses can pay as they grow. That is my revenue model. You can get a basic website from Etavonni for $1,000 starting with $250 non refundable deposit. We set a payment you are comfortable with and you pay that as we build the site. The payments can be as low as $100. You can also get social media services for as little as $200 a month, and much more.

I know about small business because I have been there. I also know about life because as you can see in this article, it has taken me for several spins. Nonetheless, I am still here. Still fighting for what I believe in. We can't always change the world, but we can change how we react to it. Everything that has happened to me, happened for a reason and I am so thankful for those opportunities to learn more about myself and about the people around me. Speaking of the people around me. I got married last year in Sept. I met my wife during the first Larry's shut down in 2013. She is my rock and she has all her ducks in a row, she has been sponsoring me these last few years. I wish my ducks were in a row and actual ducks. I think I got frogs scattered around the place. God is still working on me, believe me. I also have a 11 year old daughter and she is growing fast. I love her to the moon and back. I also want to leave a better legacy than my father has for me.

Lastly, don't ever give up. Do not worry about the negative things that will happen to you or that have happened, because they will happen. You have everything you need inside you. I always like to use this quote when things get a little tough " Where I am Today, I Will Not Be Tomorrow" This allows me to accept the present and prepare for the future both mentally and emotionally. We have the gifts inside us. You will work towards what you believe in. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to find out about a person you really know now. I am no longer just a connection, you know more about me than my wife does. So, do me a favor. Go to www.etavonnimedia.com and let me know what you think of my website. It has all of my contact information there so if you want to call me and rip me a new one for being so damn frank with you, that's fine too. Please be on the look out for my podcast called "The Grind" coming out this year. I will have entrepreneurs on from around the country, to discuss what their story is and how do they keep going. I wish you nothing but success and hang in there, when I say I will pray for you and myself, I really mean it. Until next time. Well, maybe I will have a success story here soon.

Sincerely,

Carl Dunn

#Tried #True #Perseverance #Dedication #Achievement #EtavonniMedia #TheGrindPodcast

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