Life of Ken – Vol. 26

---

Happenings from the Homefront

Summer is in full swing, and that means summer sports for Kai. This month he tackled a basketball camp at Paschal High School, getting in reps and building skills on the court. He also suited up for the Sandlot Baseball League, run by Coach Ryan.

If you have followed Life of Ken for any length of time, Coach Ryan’s name is not new to you. He has shown up in these pages before, and for good reason. The man has a heart of service that shows up in how he runs that league. He goes out of his way for these kids, week after week, season after season. Guys like Coach Ryan are the reason local youth sports work. They do not get paid for the time and energy they pour into other people’s children. It is done from the love inside their hearts. Grateful Kai gets to learn the game under someone like that.

After basketball camp and Sandlot wrapped up, Kai headed off to summer camp at Sky Ranch. He had spent the better part of the last year going back and forth on whether to stick with Sky Ranch or switch things up and try Camp La Junta instead. This year settled the debate for good.

Kai came home and told us he had given his life to Jesus while he was there. That kind of news stops you in your tracks as a dad. He has since decided he wants to keep going back to Sky Ranch, and he has his sights set on becoming a counselor there one day. Watching your kid find that kind of clarity at his age is something words do not do justice to. Proud does not begin to cover it.

While Kai was off finding his footing at Sky Ranch, Amber and I had our own version of camp. We spent several days with friends in Phoenix and Flagstaff, Arizona, playing golf, eating well, and catching up with people we do not get to see nearly enough.

From there we sprinted off to Peoa, Utah for the Relationship Intelligence Summit, hosted by Dr. Kelly Flanagan with co-facilitation by Joshua Wenner and Stefanos and Christine Sifandos. It was a week built around deepening relationships, rekindling old friendships, and growing together as a couple.

The following week brought Amber and Kai’s annual Mommy Son trip, and this year it was a bigger deal than usual. Kai turned 10 in late December, so they went big with a four day cruise to Nassau, Bahamas, departing out of Miami.

Our family had never cruised before, but Amber and Kai came back with a verdict. They are, in fact, cruise people. They cleaned up at trivia, swam with pigs on a private island, ate more good food than two people should be allowed to in four days, and made memories that will last a lot longer than the tan lines.

While Amber and Kai were off cruising, I got to spend Father’s Day weekend with some quality one on one time with my older two. Grace joined me for a Father’s Day cookout at my F3 friend’s (F3 RoundUp)  farm in Poolville, Texas. Good food, good company, and a nice slow afternoon with my daughter.

Then Knox came with me out to the ranch for a long day of working the cows. Nothing like a full day in the heat and the dirt with your son to remind you why you do this

The month wrapped up the way it was supposed to. My birthday rolled around, and I actually made it to 55 years old! Grace was already back at her master’s program, so it was Amber, Knox, Kai, and me for dinner at one of our old standbys, Outback Steakhouse.

The familiar banter and the friendly jabbing back and forth around that table was the perfect way to close out the month and kick off year 55.

Work, work, work!

Much of the month went into interviewing a strong slate of candidates for the Director of Franchise Development role at Laundry Luv. We run a fairly lengthy and involved hiring process by design. It lets us get to know candidates well before committing to what we hope will be years of working together.

As of this writing, we have landed on our final candidate and are about to make an offer. More on that next month.

Also on the books this month was a fishing trip with Schuyler, planned as a way to dive deeper into relationship with some key men in our world. Mother Nature had other plans, though, and the trip got postponed. Again, more to come on that one later.

Beyond the hiring search, Laundry Luv is in full growth mode. We have been in conversations with existing operators about acquiring their businesses, working to expand one of our current locations, and actively scouting new sites to grow our footprint. All of that on top of the more than fifty candidates currently sitting in our franchise pipeline.

As part of our growth and site evaluation process, I also did a deep dive competitor analysis this month, personally driving by eight different laundromats around the area. It is shocking, and honestly a little sad, to see how little effort some owners put into businesses they spent real money to create.

I also continue to be blown away by the depth of talent on our team. I recently reviewed a checklist with more than 120 items that we have built to help new franchise members make sure nothing falls through the cracks as they open their first location. What started as a simple Google Sheet has now been brought into a full software platform, with links straight into our corporate drive and additional resources built right in.

It is the kind of behind the scenes work that nobody outside the company ever sees, but it is exactly what separates a good franchise system from a great one.

And finally, we are putting together an exceptional group of people who will serve as Ambassadors of LUV for the Laundry Luv organization. These are well respected members of their communities, people whose values align with ours, and movers and shakers who know plenty of well connected folks in business. They are becoming a core part of our lead generation effort, helping bring the right franchise partners into our system.

Brain Food (what I am reading, watching, and listening to)

This month I finished Extreme Prayer by Greg Pruett, a recommendation from another one of my F3 friends. I really enjoyed the book and the clearly defined framework the author lays out for prayer paired with action. I have actually taken that framework and added it into my daily morning routine.

With Kai getting more and more into sports, we have also been watching Quarterback and Receiver, the Netflix specials, together as a family in the evenings. It is amazing to watch him start picking up names, from high school all the way to the pros, as he really starts paying attention to the game. He has also been playing sports games on his PS5, soaking up even more about football, baseball, and basketball along the way.

Amber and I also watched Nate Bargatze’s Hello World special on Prime Video. I had heard a lot of people talk about him but had never actually sat down and watched anything of his. I really appreciated his sense of humor and the fact that he can be genuinely funny using clean, family friendly comedy. It was a great way to get a good, clean laugh together.

And I went down a YouTube rabbit hole this month, watching dozens of Tesla videos. It is fascinating how much you can learn on a topic in a relatively short amount of time these days.

Kaizen

I continued my regular daily Bible readings and kept up my weekly attendance at the Bible study Schuyler has been hosting. I am grateful for this group of men who show up each week for each other, willing to dive in and learn together.

Random Musings

I took my car in for service and was told it needed $10,500 worth of work. Keep in mind, it is a 2016 vehicle that has 150,000 miles on it. If I sold it (once it was fixed up), I might get $12,500 for it. Elon offered me a handsome trade-in value, so….meet Ruby. And…if you have read this far, and are interested in seeing something really crazy, check this out this video we recorded while driving Ruby in a Springtown cemetery. Creepy!

Until next time.

Take action and be grateful!

-Ken

Share