We recently connected with John Schroeder and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, John thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

It’s a small thing, but I feel it’s been really effective. My company is a franchise business, so I didn’t come up with any of the branding, nor do I have any control over it, but I’ve embraced it and the navy and lime green colors. I started needing to wear glasses for reading a couple years into starting the business, and progressive bifocals became an accessory for me. So I got myself a pair of glasses with interchangeable frame toppers in lime green. It’s a real standout color that I get a lot of comments on. In this business, half the battle is being remembered, and now I’m “the guys with the green glasses.” I’ve doubled down on that, buying a pair of oxford shoes in the same color and a matching belt with the company logo on the buckle. It’s a little silly, but fun and memorable. I don’t always wear all my green, but as long as I’m wearing the glasses, people recognize and remember me. The only problem that comes with that is that I can’t always remember the names of all the people I’ve met who remember me because of my glasses!

In fact, to really “Go Green,” we have just changed our team name from Schroeder Team to Green Team! It’s simple, easy to remember, easy to spell, and goes right along with all the green I wear when marketing the business. No one really wants to remember how to spell Schroeder, if they even remember how to say it!

John, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I had a long career as a sound mixer doing network television promos, and even won an Emmy as part of the team that helped launch the NFL on Fox. But when it was time for a change, I started looking at franchise business opportunities. Home inspection seemed like a good fit for me given my general understanding of home systems and components, and my interest in architecture and interior design. I had learned a lot from my father, a mechanical engineer, who single-handedly expanded the second floor of our home by adding three bedrooms and a bathroom. Three of those rooms were cantilevered out over the first floor. This addition meant my three brothers and I could each have a room of our own.

Pillar To Post Home Inspectors is the largest home inspection company in North American, with over 500 franchise locations in the US and Canada. They’re always researching new technologies to find ways to bring more value to the services we provide and continue to be on the leading edge of the industry. One of the challenges in selling our services is that, because it includes so many innovative features, it tends to be a little pricier than competing options. Some people have a tendency to price-shop and look for the cheapest option, but what they don’t realize is that they are comparing apples to oranges.

For example, we capture 360-degree images of every home we inspect, so our client can revisit virtually, after the inspection, and see comments and images from the inspection report as they go. Each client may request repair estimates for items identified in their report, at no additional cost, which can be a powerful tool for negotiating credits or requesting repairs. We can also generate a complete floor plan with measurements for our client; this is great for planning a move or providing to contractors for bids on painting or flooring! Finally, we can provide a “digital owner’s manual” for the home, allowing for registration of all the systems and appliances in the home for the purpose of providing recall alerts, user manuals, how-to videos, and maintenance reminders.

Our top-of-the line “Healthy Home Package,” aimed at folks with respiratory concerns such as asthma and allergies, even includes testing the air and dust in the home for elevated levels of mold and common allergens. So we have a range of options for our clients to cater to their needs and budgets. In fact, our basic Plus Package is actually less expensive than many other companies’ services that don’t include some of the features we do.

We have a lot of stellar reviews, which is a testament to how delighted our clients are with the service we provide. And a delighted client makes for a good experience for everyone involved!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2014, after 24 years in sound, the department I’d been a part of for 17 years was eliminated. Instead of rushing out and looking for the same job at another network, I decided I wanted to try something different, but I had no idea what that would be.

To make a long story short, I began looking at franchise opportunities, and ultimately chose Pillar To Post Home Inspectors from among those in the Top 500 franchise businesses. Much like choosing a major in college, this required that I make a significant commitment without fully understanding how it would play out.

What I didn’t realize is that I was signing up for a career in sales, which is something I never would have done intentionally. Starting a Pillar To Post business is nothing like opening a McDonald’s. I imagine that having a brick-and-mortar location that hungry people drive by and recognize doesn’t require a lot of sales and marketing to succeed. That is not the case with a home-based business. It’s one thing to learn how to be a good home inspector, and it’s quite another to build a business from scratch, even with the support of a franchisor.

Pillar To Post advises that when you are not inspecting, you need to be prospecting. And that’s true. Offering free inspections, cold calling, direct mail, and visiting real estate offices with treats are all part of the sales and marketing program, so I had to push myself way out of my comfort zone. For a guy who had only ever had a “job” before, this was a lot of unfamiliar territory.

People talk about how they’d like to quit their job and start a business to “be my own boss.” Well, let me tell you, a business has to cater to their customers, and while I may be my own boss, I need to be available seven days a week, sixteen hours a day, so that we can maintain the level of responsiveness and customer service our clients have come to expect. Real estate is a business that never sleeps—just ask any REALTOR®!

That said, I have learned so much and grown tremendously through this process. I’ve also developed many solid relationships with a lot of terrific people! I’ve had great success to date, especially for a sole owner/operator, but there have been plenty of bumps in the road, and it can be extremely stressful and demanding at times.

Although I’ve won several awards from Pillar To Post and been a member of their Franchise Advisory Council, there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve my goals. I look forward to continuing to grow, develop our company culture, and improve the quality and scope of our service.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Every January, Pillar To Post holds a conference for all the Franchise Business Owners in a different location around the U.S. This last January, we were in Tucson, and I was faced with a couple of very challenging setbacks while away.

I had planned a ten-day road trip from Los Angeles that would include visits with several long-time friends and a cousin. My odyssey included overnights in Flagstaff, Sedona and Phoenix, with the business conference sandwiched in between.

Before the trip’s halfway point, I received an early-morning voicemail informing me that my full-time assistant, Jerusha, who answers the phone, books inspections, and otherwise generally handles the basic tasks of running the business, had suffered a house fire and would not be able to come back to work for several weeks. Thankfully, Pillar To Post has a call center that can handle the phone and bookings, and they stepped in to cover me anytime I was unavailable. Also, I had recently hired a virtual assistant to handle social media, and having her on board took a lot off my plate during this period. All that softened the blow of Jerusha’s catastrophe.

The conference was going well, but on the final evening, a Sunday, as I was walking in to the big, final shindig, my phone rang. My employee who was doing all of the inspecting in my absence had fallen ill. He sounded awful. We already had him booked on five inspections in the coming three days, beginning the next morning, and I was not scheduled to be home until Wednesday.

I momentarily considered immediately going back to my room, packing up, and driving all night so I could be home in the morning to cover our inspections. That would mean sacrificing my final evening with my Pillar To Post cohorts and canceling plans to visit with two more good friends. No. I wouldn’t do it. So I got on the phone and started calling REALTORS®.

I feared what I was going to ask would sour relationships and that the business would suffer. As it turns out, everyone was very understanding and accommodating, though it wasn’t without some sacrifice on my part. I ended up having to cut my trip short by a day. I left a friend’s house in Fountain Valley very early on Tuesday with just enough time to pull into my garage, change clothes, unpack the car, reload it with my inspection equipment, and get to a 3:30 pm appointment.

We didn’t lose a single job that week. We just had to juggle things around a bit, and I had to do a lot more inspecting.

What did I learn? That it’s important to set some boundaries for myself, that stuff happens, and that people are willing to be flexible when faced with unexpected setbacks. I am grateful to the people with whom we’ve built solid relationships—people who value our service enough to work with us rather than just perceiving us as a service provider. We are very responsive and jump through hoops for our clients to accommodate their needs, and it’s nice to know they are willing to reciprocate when the road gets bumpy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://greenteam.pillartopost.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenteampillartopost/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreenTeamPillarToPost
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greenteampillartopost/
• Twitter: https://x.com/PTPGreenTeam
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@pillartopostgreenteam
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pillar-to-post-home-inspectors-green-team-los-angeles?osq=pillar+to+post+home+inspectors&override_cta=Request+quote+%26+availability