How A Mother's Grit Built One of the Worlds Largest Moving Companies"”And Led Her Son to God

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Modo.us. Hi everybody it's Savannah Guthrie from the Today Show. As we head back to work, back to school, back to everything, we want to help you turn your to-do list into your today list. Your morning routine, healthy meals and workout plans. We've got you covered so you can take it all on with simple solutions to help you through the day.

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See att.com slash Samsung or visit an AT&T store for details. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories the show where America is the star and the American people. Up next a story from Briggs Orber part of the founding family of Michigan's own two men in a truck moving company.

Let's get into the story here's Briggs. My first job was raking leaves when I was eight. I knocked on a door and these two guys open the door and they're looking at me. They go what do you want? I said I just kind of rake your front yard for a dollar.

He goes yeah go ahead. I was just jacked you know I was gonna make a dollar this is my first job and these guys I had a car backed in and they were moving stuff out of the house and then they took off and said they'd be back and I said okay so I kept raking leaves and this another car pulls up he looks in his house comes running out and he goes who the hell are you? I go I'm raking your leaves. The guy said I could rake the leaves.

What guy said you could rake the leaves? I went the guy was moving stuff out of your house. He was being robbed and I didn't know it and so the cops came and they were asking me questions. I'm going what is going on? Well then the cops left took the report and then I finished and I knocked on the door and the guy answers the door he goes what do you want? I went I want my dollar for raking your leaves.

He goes for god's sakes I just got robbed. I mean I'm eight right so the guy gives me a buck and I just remember going home like not thinking anything of it and I told my mom the story and she was like shocked so that's how my working life started. Work was always part of what us kids did. Me and my buddies started mowing lawns. There weren't those landscapers back then it was just neighborhood boys cutting grass and so we just opened up the white pages and I remember my buddy Tim Falmer and I we went through and said we need to mow 10 lawns and then if we can mow 10 lawns two lawns a day Monday through Friday then we can spend the rest of time at the beach. It's like it's like the best thing I've ever done in my life is to it's like let's do it and it was uncanny but everyone called they went well sure it's like wow this is easy so we would haul our lawnmowers behind our bikes and we had a couple horrendous wipeouts doing that but a lot of people looked at us and went like man you guys are like going after it and so we love being our own boss.

I like me and my own guy. We bought a 66 Ford pickup truck from Michigan State University. It was an old agricultural truck just a beater three on the tree shifting us up on the column.

We made a lot of money with that truck. My brother and I started getting into moving just trash and brush around and then my mom started this was after she divorced she started another business. She would go to estate auctions and she would buy furniture and then haul it to this little store that she leased out clean it all up and resell it and so she bought this whole truck for about three hundred dollars like a 15-foot step van instead of just a pickup truck and told us you know if you want to use that for your moving go ahead and that's what really got us into moving like apartments and small homes and when John and I started the business it was called Men at Work Movers and underneath that it said two men in the truck 25 bucks an hour and then my mom drew on a napkin a cartoon truck with two stick men in it and that's where our logo came from. Our logo to this day is a drawing that my mom made on a napkin and she said why don't you drop Men at Work Movers and just call yourselves what you are two men in a truck so that's where our name came from. We were small guys I was probably five seven and maybe a buck forty. We'd show up at someone's house and I can't tell you how many times I'd get this people would look at me and their shoulders would slump it's like oh crap here we go again is there a problem ma'am well we were expecting a couple scrapping lads and we're expecting two men not two boys it's like I totally understand I said I'll tell you what let us work for you for 15 minutes and if it doesn't work out we'll call the office and get a couple bigger guys here is that fair yeah that'd be fair so John and I would go downstairs and we would move the upright freezer that's the thing that nobody can move and then they would just go like we are so sorry usually meant a good tip the funny part was we had no extra guys we had no office so it was like you know we're walking a wire without a safety net there but John and I were both pleasers and this industry was very easy to please him people would just do backflips if we even showed up John and I this was beer and book money in that order and we were drinking green bottle beer as opposed to our other guys drinking like the cheap beer but it really became because it didn't make any money I mean for kids for beer and book money it was fine but my mom loved it and my mom quit her job at the state of Michigan she took all of her qualified retirement money and cashed it all in people were screaming at her her own mother my grandma was just going what are you doing the first two years when she quit her job she didn't pay herself anything and she just lived off that qualified money and ramen noodles for two years and if she was sitting here in this room she'd tell you it was the happiest days of her life I think she's crazy but she loved building the business she finally made a profit her third year I think she made a thousand dollars and she wasn't sure how to do the taxes because she was like I've never had a profit so it was the sweetest thing she wrote 10 checks for a hundred dollars and gave them to non-profits in Lansing and that got back to the chamber of commerce and some other business people and they went who is this lady it was at that time that Lansing like wrapped its arms around two men a truck and went this is our moving company which was the coolest thing and Michigan State University had a bunch of small businesses come in to talk to their business school she went in there my mom was very shy but god bless her she got through it this lady came to her and said did you ever consider franchising my mom goes who would buy a moving franchise and she goes well I'm a pet nanny I take care of people's pets I franchise so I think if I could you can and my mom said let's do it but my mom when she started franchising two men in a truck 49 years old no college education pretty pretty amazing and you've been listening to Brig Sorber tell the story of two men in a truck when we come back more a Brig and his remarkable life story here on our American stories this is Lee Habib host of our American stories the show where America is the star in the American people and we do it all from the heart of the south Oxford Mississippi but we truly can't do this show without you our shows will always be free to listen to but they're not free to make if you love what you hear consider making a tax-deductible donation to our American stories go to our American stories.com give a little give a lot that's our American stories.com Roku has what you need to make your college home away from home feel more like your own make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV or bring a Roku streaming stick to easily access all your favorite free and premium content like iHeartRadio stream your favorite playlist with the Roku vibe setting smart light strips to sync your music to millions of colors and make your dorm feel more like you make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV streaming players and smart lights head to roku.com or your favorite retailer to deck out your dorm constantly making trips to Home Depot introducing drop the app that rewards you for every shopping trip earn free gift cards for shopping download the drop app now and use code drop three three to get five dollars and points visit modo.us for the best free place social casino experience wherever you are modo offers a huge selection of vega style games and now introducing live blackjack roulette and casino hold them these are so much fun modo always has generous jackpots free spins and exciting promotions register today at modo.us for your free welcome bonus modo is a social casino no purchase necessary void where prohibited play responsibly conditions apply see website for your day, the market for online games, playbooks, and music. Hi everybody it's Savannah Guthrie from the today show as we head back to work back to school back to everything we want to help you turn your to do list into your today list your morning routine healthy meals and workout plans we've got you covered, so you can take it all on with simple solutions to help you through the day everything you need to know before heading out the door so go join us every morning on NBC because every day needs today. and shady additives and best of all they taste delicious the time to boost your energy levels improve your focus and mood sleep better enjoy better skin and much more is right now all thanks to symbiotic a visit symbiotic a.com and place your order today don't forget to use the code I heart to get 20% off and free shipping on your subscription order at symbiotic a.com C Y M B I O T I K a calm symbiotic a.com and we return to our American stories and with Briggs Sorber he's part of the founding family behind two men in a truck the largest franchised moving company in the world started in large measure by his mother she had no college education and no knowledge of the moving industry when she poured her retirement money into the young business rig now shares with us the story of how he met his wife Fran I was on Northern Michigan's rugby team we were having a party we needed hot dogs and the party that we were at was kind of like in the student ghetto so there was like this random shopping cart on the side of the road and so Fran was walking by with a couple of her friends we just went you want to go you want to cook out they're like okay so me and my buddy picked up Fran and we put her probably get arrested for this now put her in the shopping cart and just started pushing her down the road all the way to the blue link party store to get hot dogs and then I got to know Fran at this party and my roommates were like Brig we got to go we got to go gotta get back to the house and so they they picked me up and threw me in the car like college guys do and I unrolled the window and I yelled Fran she looked and I went I'm gonna marry you someday and she was like that guy's drunk and I didn't see her for a couple months and I saw her at a party and we went out that night we just started dating and I loved her because she was very independent she paid for her own apartment she paid for her own school she was the only one out of the 14 kids that went to college she would study in the only bathroom that they had she had flipped the toilet seat down sit on that and put the clothes hamper there as a desk at night when all the lights were on she'd study in high school because she wanted to go to college I was a kid that by the time I went to school my parents would be perceived as upper-middle class so a lot of the things that she worked hard on I took for granted I went that's really cool that she does that I ended up getting Fran pregnant and I don't mind sharing this I asked her if I could share this and she said as long as it helps people yeah I don't like you running around but yeah I guess so when we were younger we wouldn't share this but now we share it because when she told me she went I'm having this baby you don't have to marry me I'm gonna have this baby and I just went that is so classic Fran I just fell in love with her more and I won't look come on friend we'd probably get married anyway which we probably I really truly feel we would have and she's like oh yeah and I said well let's get married little did I know I'm thinking I'm doing her a favor she took on like two babies you know I mean I was like a kid and and she really kept our family buoyant because I wasn't I'd go to church with her on occasion at college I didn't think anything of it you know and we had this baby and I just worked my off I mean I went from 170 pounds I graduated from college to 135 pounds I remember that when we found out she was pregnant we had no insurance or anything and it was like a welfare baby we couldn't afford it and they sat me down and I said I'm not taking any welfare I was very proud they went the state worker was just probably sick of working with people like me he's like shut up she needs attrition for that baby and he gave me like a hundred dollars go buy some groceries and he feels what are you gonna do with the rest of your life and I was like I'm graduating from college in like a month just shook his head walked away from me and I said I will never take welfare money again and that was in itself a sin right the way I was thinking it was because of pride I didn't by the way but man I worked my to make sure that that never happened but I'm glad it did it gave me an appreciation when I see people down on their luck and I am NOT judging them so that was like a a wake-up call for me but watching Fran live her Catholic faith it was like she was never mad she took care of that baby Fran kept us all buoyant until I kind of got my crap together it wasn't that I was out with my friends I wasn't drinking all the time thank God I didn't have those things on me it was more I was just more greedy about my own life like poor me look how hard my life is with these kids I was like dude you brought it on you know and Fran didn't have to take this by the way she decided to have the baby and take your useless butt when you were in college I mean God I really thought success was freedom and the only way to freedom was money I will never say that we were poor poor is when you have no hope we were broke maybe I dip my toe into being poor because there was times I felt like I was losing hope but I don't know I just there was something deep inside of me it's like I don't want to be like this how do I get there I just got to make a lot of money and also we worked really hard and two-minute truck continued to grow and it took a bump in pay I thought man I finally made it so I went out my least Audi a4 because I thought you know it is a sophisticated European vehicle I went out and I got a Frank Sinatra CD to play in it isn't that horrible I mean the funny part I ended up kind of liking them and then I thought that successful guys drink scotch so I went out bought a bottle on Johnny Walker black and I want to join a country club to you know rub elbows with other rich guys tell war stories I mean seriously I did all this it literally happened like that so I had my first scotch on the rocks in the cigar and man almost puked when I drank that scotch it was whoa I was afraid to pour it on the grass those burned my grass but I finished my cigar I thought well how are you supposed to feel I don't know maybe this is something you have to grow into I don't know I'd finished my cigar and I thought about that it was at that point it was like within a couple days that I slipped into depression and it was his horrible you know I wouldn't wish that on anybody I went to go see a doctor I went well cheese I probably have cancer now you know something's wrong with me you know my life is perfect so something's wrong with me and the doctor went no you're just depressed and he just simply wrote me a prescription for depression like it was like nothing and I looked at that thing I got my car and I just went no I'm gonna put that in my wallet I'm not gonna take this pill and again I don't want to belittle depression but for me I was like no I was not depressed up until like now and it was bad I mean I wasn't gonna kill myself but if I got hit by a bus it wouldn't have bothered me I'm not gonna wrap my arms around this and I remember my wife just going like what is the deal I mean we were doing really good she was why don't you work out again so I got my workout bench to work out and I just I literally just broke down I'm not talking about man pouting here I'm talking about sobbing I was just like God what is going on here you have given me more than everything I've asked for why am I feeling like this it was all about being validated was so important to me it was very important when people felt about me I did believe in God but I didn't think he was a loving God I thought it's more of an angry God that you got to work hard you know the harder you work tomorrow I'll love you kind of thing do right treat people good they'll treat you good it's like man I can play that game I'll work hard I'll be nice to people I'll throw money in the you know in the pot at Christmas time you know why they're ringing the bell I'll do all that stuff so on the news there was a story about the Left Behind series of books it was like revelation and I was always kind of into that so I started reading into these books about how what if Jesus came back in this lifetime and he took back all the Christians left behind all the non-christians and I went oh man I'd go for sure he'd take me up because I'm like the man I mean I give money to all this stuff and they would refer to the Bible so I would open up the Bible and it's like well okay it kind of says that it says that in there and this and I thought you know you need to start reading this Bible and then I realized Manberg you have no relationship with Christ at all and so I really started taking a look at how trying to validate myself with God was totally useless you know we can't do anything we can't do any good things to win God's favor otherwise we wouldn't need Christ and that's when I realized I need a relationship with him and then while all this is going on all this business chaos was going on I thought I'm gonna start preying on the business too and you're listening to Briggs Sorber tell one heck of a personal story and we love these kinds of stories because well he's not doing a lot of self flattery here he married a way above his pay grade beautiful woman who let him know she was pregnant and she was having the baby with him or without him and not as a threat just as a statement of fact and he was dragged along by her into manhood and adulthood but not without an encounter with the Lord he found money but something was missing when we come back more of Briggs Sorber's story here on our American story you Roku has what you need to make your college home away from home feel more like your own make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV or bring a Roku streaming stick to easily access all your favorite free and premium content like I heart radio stream your favorite playlist with the Roku vibe setting smart light strips to sync your music to millions of colors and make your dorm feel more like you make your dorm the place to be with Roku TVs streaming players and smart lights head to roku.com or your favorite retailer to deck out your dorm is getting gas at shell burning a hole in your wallet get the drop app with drop you can earn free gift cards just by filling up your tank download drop now use code drop 8 8 to instantly receive $5 in points visit mo do us for the best replay social casino experience wherever you are moto offers a huge selection of Vegas 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as a young father and later a wealthy man it was because of these struggles that he turned to God a decision that would benefit him greatly during the 2008 recession a dark time for his company let's return to this story here again is brig we were so broken our website was so bad that we found out that we had an 80% drop-off rate 80% of the customers using the website got so frustrated they left it the two years before that we won the JD power associates for customer satisfaction and we had those trophies proudly displayed in our corporate front foyer and when all those things went down I went put those damn things in the closet they went why they went because we suck but there was so much business it hides the brokenness and you gotta understand the recession really started with the collapse of the mortgage industry well when the mortgage industry collapses people can't get money they can't buy houses well the next thing people say well people are losing their houses so they were calling you it to move them well when people lose their houses they can't afford a mover so it cut us down dramatically we were hemorrhaging cash and I'm looking around and going like oh my gosh what are we gonna do here we have about 78 employees we went down to about 52 most of the people there were really really working hard and there were some people that were doing nothing they were coming in here literally doing nothing I prayed about these things Lord what are we gonna do with your business today what are gonna do with your business today we did have three million dollars in a money market I was told us a money market account it was actually a bond securities account I went all right Lord what we can do today although I had the three million in the back of my mind well I can buy new equipment I can do this I can do this I have three million dollars a couple days later the banker took me out to lunch and said hey brick well just one of the things going is it pretty good we're gonna need to get at that three million it was like fantastic a week later he calls me up and he goes I got some bad news I said what's that and he goes well that bond security account actually takes there's an auction you have to auction those things to get to those things the auction collapsed this week and so you may never see that three million dollars again and I had a few words of the banker because I found out later I said well you were having this lunch talking about your golf game there was other bankers that were pulling their people out of this account he's like I just don't tell you brig so I actually shut the door and I just started cracking up I'm going okay God now you have my attention because it was like what are you gonna do it's like because I could see God working in the business and I went this is awesome I mean now I've got nothing I've got I had a half a million dollars in cash that was it and I was in the process of letting these people go and I'm praying over them and then I get this feeling God's going like a rig you got to take care of these people you're letting go remember they didn't cheat or steal from you a couple of them weren't doing anything but the majority of them were working really hard it's a recession and you're letting them go you need to severance them it's like all right how much money man I got five hundred thousand so I severance doubt half of the five hundred thousand dollars right during the recession so we had nothing but I did that because I knew it's the right thing to do it was on my heart and I knew enough I know God's voice when I hear it I know it I know that this was right and I said this is God's business and people thought I was crazy and it was just like so then I brought in a couple outside executives because I needed help right away well the first thing is the outside executives is they said let's take a look at all the agreements too many trucks in they were appalled at a lot of these agreements they go we are getting hosed here big time I went here's the deal I go rewrite the ones that we can rewrite get out of the ones that we can get out of but we're doing nothing illegally and they're like we I went no stay above board if we cheat we are immediately looking at God saying you won't take care of me Lord I'm gonna choose to cheat because you're not capable of taking care of us it's that simple so no one of us this was this lady she was like an angry lady but she was damn good she got a hold of some of the vendors they all know who she is she said bill this is so-and-so hey where are you met two men in a truck they get really quiet she goes you know we're not gonna do this anymore and he goes well I figured somebody's gonna come around and they signed it we saved without breaking any rules we saved about $400,000 in bad contracts in about two months which more than offset what I severance we got a hold of the Attorney General at the Mike Cox at the time and we talked to him about what happened with this bond security thing he's like give me that and he made a couple phone calls and the bank called up and said we want to come over we got balloons we got the cake and we have a check to give you back for your money I said you can stick your balloons and your cake just bring the check over it's not your money that's God working in the business God made us more than a hole in that whole thing when all that stuff was going down and I had I let a lot of those employees go I brought the departments in and me and some of these younger employees were in tears it was like look there's a lot of barrels that we're gonna cut off this boat throw in the ocean things that we don't need then we're gonna save this company and I stole this line it says ships are safe in port but that's not what ships were built for this two-minute truck boat has been in port long enough I know we're broken but we're going out in deep blue water right now because we are gonna die here I know a lot of you've been working for two minute truck you work for a moving company you didn't sign up for this adventure but guess what you're in it some of you will survive it some of you won't some of you will excel in it and become great but we will see what happens these were the people I had left so you know the fancy Christmas parties they're over the big buses to the Detroit Tiger Games are over and I had a couple employees come in my office and just go you are destroying the culture and I went no I'm keeping our company do you want to send your kids to college you want to buy a cottage someday and retire and some really cool thing these are the things that we can work for but we got to cut this stuff out we have to get to what we're good at and they said okay and the beautiful thing was that year we had enough money to bonus employees during the recession even when we lost money I remember coming in right before Christmas I had a stack of bonus checks on my desk and I'm telling you right now tears came out of my eyes and hit those checks and it was just like we have an awesome God I can't believe this and I just prayed over those checks and thank God for him to this day our CEO now he hands out the checks he's also a strong Catholic and I told him pray over those checks never never take those things do I have a few employees here that take them for granted yeah it's human nature right but I had employees coming in that first year in tears because they got these checks we're just happy to have a job it's I'm just happy to have you guys in this adventure those checks have gotten bigger we've got a lot more people to distribute them but they're a constant reminder of the blessings when we listen to God in our business and through over halfway through the recession up until now we've had a hundred and seven months of month-over-month growth we haven't stopped we're still growing from that from doing these things and from praying over the business and a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling by our own Monty Montgomery and a special thanks to Briggs Sorber who shared with us the ups and downs of his life and was very candid about the things he did wrong the things he wasn't prepared for and in the end his own personal shortcomings and now his reliance on God got him through his toughest times and boy that recession of 2008 was the big one for two men in a truck and for himself personally the story of so much more the American dream success and what success really means here on our American stories roku has what you need to make your college home away from home feel more like your own make your dorm the place to be with roku TV or bring a roku streaming stick to easily access all your favorite free and premium content like I heart radio stream your favorite playlist with the roku vibe setting smart light strips to sync your music to millions of colors and make your dorm feel more like you make your dorm the place to be with roku TVs 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