From NFL Punter to Pink Zebra Owner: Drew Chrisman's Moving Franchise Story

This is a transcript from Episode 12 of The Franchise Champion Show. Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Drue Chrisman: I was cut double digits times in the NFL. And so there were a lot of those two days that were really long and just kind of wondering what's going to be next. This year we should do just over 2 million for what we're looking to do right now. We've grown probably about 25,000 to 50,000 each month. Our whole motto is we make moving fun because we know moving is not a ton of fun—which is why we exist. It's like just below the death of a family member.

Alan Regala: I'm excited to welcome today's guest, Drue Chrisman. Drue has a true athlete to owner story. He was a collegiate football star at Ohio State, then was a punter for the Cincinnati Bengals, and now is the proud franchise owner of Pink Zebra Moving of the greater Cincinnati area. Welcome to the show, Drue.

Drue Chrisman: Awesome. I appreciate you having me, Alan. I didn't know punter and star ever made it in the same sentence. We'll gladly take that accolade if you'll give it to me.

Alan: Well, as I said, I'm super excited to speak with you. Before we dive into this transition from NFL player to owning a business, I'd like to know, what was it like going from collegiate football to the NFL?

Drue: Obviously very similar. I mean, you can go into a locker room and I mean, my job itself didn't change too much. The ball was a little different, but my goal was to kick it as high and as far as I possibly could and make the returner's life as hard as possible. And so, but really, the biggest change between college and NFL was just the speed of the game.

There's a lot of big guys in college. I mean, I pride myself on being a tall guy myself. I mean, I'm 6'3", over 200 pounds—220—but I was my biggest in college. And so as the size-wise, as far as I didn't feel like I was getting towered over, but just these guys, the speed that they are bringing to the game now. I mean, just look at their calves or their quads and it's like that is a tree trunk that these guys are running around with. And so, you know, that's the biggest change in the game that I had to get comfortable with.

When I first transitioned, my time itself was comparable to college. But in the NFL with those guys coming off the edge and everything at a different speed, everything has to be faster. You know, speed kills and certainly at that level.

Alan: Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine. You know, it's an interesting thing with professional sports. I think most people who don't pay serious attention to all the players in the game, you know, generally see the stars of the game and can imagine what it's like to be one of the stars that they see in every game. But I'm curious to know your perspective. Just like what was it like to be a player in the NFL? As far as like, what is life like, really like, from the standpoint of outside of the game—what does that look like?

Drue: I mean, I was a punter. It's not like I was Joe Burrow or anything where, you know, it's hard for me to go outside and go to public places because people are paparazzi or people come up asking for autographs. I mean, you know, honestly, lifestyle of mine didn't change too much. I mean, especially, I mean, I was an undrafted free agent punter as well.

So, I mean, I was just trying to scratch and claw. I was on practice squad for the first couple of years of my career. Finally broke onto the active roster coming into my third season there and then was unfortunately let go by the end of that year. And so when you think of an NFL player, you know, the superstars—that's not 90% of the NFL, right?

The guys are just trying to scratch and claw and make it to the next week. It was called Bloody Tuesdays. That was when you did not—if you're on the active roster, you did not want a call that day. If you're on the practice squad or a free agent or something, you hope you get a call that day because then you might get elevated up to the active roster for an injury or there's a spot opened up on another team. Someone went down and you can get immediately traded onto that team for the active roster that way. So Tuesdays were sometimes very, very long and hoping that you weren't getting that call or you were getting the call, depending on where you're at in your career at the time.

Alan: Yeah, I mean, just seems like it would be, I would imagine, pretty stressful just not knowing where you're going to be next.

Drue: Yeah, I was cut double digits times, like I said at the beginning. And so there were a lot of those mornings, or the night before, where you're just on pins and needles like, "Am I going to get a call? Am I not going to get a call? What team do I think I'd actually want to play for?" You're having all these things on your mind. And then just kind of wondering what's going to be next. And you don't have much control other than what you can do on the field and how you're able to perform in practice. And really that's all you can control.

So with anything, I mean, it doesn't matter if you're at a corporate job, you're a teacher, you're a businessman—you just got to control what you can control and not worry about everything else. And so that's kind of the mentality I tried to take with the moving business and certainly what I tried to do with the NFL as well.

Alan: Yeah, that's a great mentality to have. So you kind of mentioned you got cut so many times. So let's fast forward. So what happened? I mean, obviously you're not playing right now. So what was the catalyst for you deciding to go into business?

Drue: Yeah, so I had been cut a couple of times and was not getting any more phone calls after a while. And so I kind of saw the writing on the wall that it wasn't going to work out or at least for the meantime. And so I started working with my dad. My dad owns a commercial and industrial painting company here in the Cincinnati area that he's been running for over 30 years now.

And so I always knew that was an option for me to fall back on to at least get my feet back underneath me and start to think, "Okay, I need to actually put myself in a position where I'm not going to—I can't just rely on football and my athletic ability." I need to start trying to learn the business side of things, which I never really cared to do or tried to do or honestly took seriously through college and through my couple of years in the NFL.

And so I started working with my dad and that really made me—being in his business—realize how much I didn't know and how much there was still left to learn. And I started falling in love with just business in general. And so I started looking for—like trying to find ways to learn about business. I read a bunch of books. I started listening to podcasts. I just consumed as much information as I could of different success stories and, you know, failures and everything that people are willing to share out there that you can find on the internet or at the library or wherever you might find it.

And so doing that, I just kind of realized that, you know, I wanted to take the opportunity to potentially start my own thing but didn't know exactly where to start. And so I reached out to Ryan Grant, who is another Ohio State football player, who had started—he was a former Wisconsin Badger as well, excuse me—and he had started a franchise with a company up in the Green Bay area that was a moving company.

And so I reached out to him and I was like, "Hey, what's franchising? I've never really heard of this before. What does this look like? What's the process?" And so he kind of gave me the rundown on that. And so the more I learned about franchising, the more attractive it became to me because I could see all the benefits of—I don't have to figure out the logistics. I don't have to figure out the marketing strategy. I don't have to figure out, you know, all the back-end systems.

There's already a playbook laid out for me. There's already expectations of what, you know, what I should achieve or what I could achieve by a certain time. And so it just made sense for somebody that didn't know a whole lot about business and wanted to learn about business—this is kind of the fastest way to get into business itself.

And so from there, I just started doing my due diligence, talking to as many people as I possibly could about franchising in general. And then once I narrowed it down to the moving space, that's when I really started hitting Pink Zebra Moving franchisees and calling them as much as I possibly could. And so I probably talked to about 15 or 16 different franchisees before I signed on. And every single one of them had, you know, a different story, a different way that they got into the business, different levels of success.

And so I really got a good picture of what the business was actually going to look like and what type of personality thrived in this, what type of, you know, operations strategies or, you know, marketing strategies different people have used. And so I felt like I was pretty well prepared. And so we signed on the dotted line in, I believe it was August of 2023. So we're a little over a year in right now.

Alan: Okay. So you signed on in August of 2023. So what point did you start operating?

Drue: So I signed on August 2023. I mean, right away they get you going. I mean, I went to training. I think it was about two months later, maybe, in October. And then we opened up our doors officially on December 26th, 2023. So right after the Christmas season.

Alan: Okay. And so it's been almost a year now. And so let's talk about like—so how has the first year been?

Drue: It's been a lot. I'll say that. You know, I knew it was going to be a lot going into this. Every single person that I talked to, they're like, "That first year, man, it's going to be probably one of the hardest years of your life, but it'll be worth it." And so I went into it with the right expectation. But even with the right expectation, it's still just been a lot.

I mean, you're learning so many different things at one time. I mean, I'm trying to learn how to, you know, market myself and market the business. I'm trying to learn how to hire people. I'm trying to learn how to, you know, make sure that trucks are getting maintained and taken care of. I mean, there's just so many different moving pieces—no pun intended—but there's just so many different things going on at one time that you really have to stay on top of.

And so, you know, having my dad's experience and having him around to be able to bounce ideas off of or ask him questions about, you know, "How do you hire people? What do you look for? How do you fire people when you need to?" I mean, all those different things that come with running a business that, you know, you don't necessarily think of when you're just, you know, a regular person or you're just an athlete or you're just a student or whatever it is.

You know, you start to realize really quickly that there's a lot more that goes into it than you initially thought. And so having that support system around me has been huge. And then also having the franchise support has been huge as well because I can call them at any time and be like, "Hey, this is the issue I'm having. What do you guys recommend? What have you seen other people do? What's worked? What hasn't worked?"

And so, you know, being able to have that resource has been invaluable. And so we've been able to grow pretty quickly. I mean, this year we should do just over 2 million for what we're looking to do right now. We've grown probably about 25,000 to 50,000 each month in revenue. And so we've been scaling pretty quickly, which is exciting. But it also comes with its own set of challenges.

You know, as you're scaling, you need to make sure you're hiring the right people. You need to make sure you're getting the right trucks. You need to make sure you're getting the right equipment. You need to make sure you're, you know, keeping up with the demand. And so there's just a lot of different things that you have to stay on top of. But it's been fun. I mean, I'm having a blast doing it.

Alan: That's fantastic. I mean, congratulations on, you know, the quick growth. I mean, that's really impressive for your first year to be projecting 2 million. That's awesome. So let's talk a little bit about Pink Zebra Moving. For people that don't know, what is Pink Zebra Moving?

Drue: Yeah, so Pink Zebra Moving is a residential and commercial moving company. Our whole motto is we make moving fun because we know moving is not a ton of fun. It's one of the most stressful things you can do in your life. It's like just below the death of a family member on the stress scale, which is why we exist.

We try to make it as fun and as easy as possible for people. We show up in bright pink trucks. We've got zebra stripes all over them. We're playing music. We're high-fiving the kids. We're trying to make it a fun experience because, again, moving is not fun. And so if we can make it even a little bit more enjoyable for people, that's what we're trying to do.

And so we do everything from, you know, just labor-only moves where we're just helping load a truck or unload a truck, all the way up to full-service moves where we're packing everything, loading everything, moving everything, unloading everything, unpacking everything. We do local moves. We do long-distance moves. We can move you from couch to house, coast to coast. So we do it all.

And so, you know, it's been a lot of fun being able to help people out and being able to make what is typically a very stressful experience a little bit more enjoyable for them.

Alan: Yeah, I love that. I love the concept of, you know, making something that's generally not fun—finding a way to make it fun. I think that's a great business model. So let's talk a little bit about your experience as an athlete and how that's translated into business ownership. What are some of the things that you learned as an athlete that you've been able to apply to your business?

Drue: Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing is just the discipline and the work ethic. I mean, as an athlete, you're constantly pushing yourself. You're constantly trying to get better. You're constantly trying to improve. And so that same mentality has translated over into the business side of things where, you know, I'm constantly trying to find ways to improve the business, constantly trying to find ways to get better at what we're doing, constantly trying to find ways to provide better service to our customers.

And so, you know, that discipline and that work ethic has been huge. And then also just the mental toughness aspect of it. I mean, as an athlete, you're going to have bad days. You're going to have days where things don't go your way. You're going to have days where you get cut or you get injured or, you know, whatever it is. And so you have to be mentally tough to be able to push through those times.

And the same thing applies in business. There's going to be days where things don't go well. There's going to be days where you lose a big customer or you have a truck break down or, you know, something goes wrong. And so you have to be mentally tough to be able to push through those times and not let it get to you and not let it affect your performance going forward.

And then I think the other big thing is just the competitive nature. I mean, as an athlete, you're constantly competing. You're constantly trying to win. You're constantly trying to be the best. And so that same competitive nature has translated over into the business side of things where, you know, I want to be the best moving company in Cincinnati. I want to provide the best service. I want to have the best reviews. I want to have the happiest customers.

And so, you know, that competitive drive has really helped me in the business as well.

Alan: Yeah, I love that. I think those are all great parallels. And I think, you know, the mental toughness piece is huge. I mean, I think a lot of people don't realize how mentally challenging running a business can be. You know, there's a lot of ups and downs. There's a lot of challenges that you face on a daily basis. And so having that mental toughness to be able to push through those difficult times is really important.

So let's talk a little bit about, you know, the challenges that you've faced in your first year. What have been some of the biggest challenges that you've had to overcome?

Drue: Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest challenge has just been learning how to manage people. I mean, I've never been in a position where I've had to manage people before. And so, you know, learning how to hire the right people, learning how to train them properly, learning how to motivate them, learning how to hold them accountable—all of those things have been challenging.

And, you know, I've made mistakes along the way. I've hired people that I probably shouldn't have hired. I've let people go that I probably should have let go sooner. And so, you know, there's definitely been a learning curve there. But I think that's part of the process. I mean, you're going to make mistakes. You're going to learn from them. And you're going to get better.

And so, you know, I've tried to take that same mentality from my athletic career where, you know, you're going to have bad games. You're going to have bad practices. But you learn from them and you move on and you get better. And so that's kind of the approach I've taken with the business as well.

I think the other big challenge has just been learning how to balance everything. I mean, there's so many different things going on at one time that it can be overwhelming at times. And so learning how to prioritize and learning how to delegate and learning how to, you know, manage your time effectively has been a big challenge as well.

But, you know, I think I'm getting better at it every day. And I'm learning more and more as I go. And so, you know, it's just part of the process.

Alan: Yeah, absolutely. I think time management and delegation are two of the biggest challenges that new business owners face. And it's something that, you know, you have to learn over time. It's not something that comes naturally to most people. So, you know, the fact that you're aware of it and you're working on it is great.

So let's talk a little bit about, you know, your family. You mentioned your dad has been a big help to you. You know, how has running a business affected your family life? And, you know, do you have kids? Are you married? What does that look like?

Drue: Yeah, so I'm married. We have a two-year-old daughter and we've got one on the way. So we're expecting our second here in January. And so, you know, balancing family life and business life has definitely been a challenge. I mean, there's a lot of times where, you know, I'm working late nights or I'm working weekends or, you know, I'm on call 24/7 essentially.

And so, you know, my wife has been extremely supportive and understanding. And, you know, she knows that this is what we're working towards and this is what we're building. And so, you know, she's been great about it. But it's definitely been a challenge to make sure that I'm still present at home and I'm still spending quality time with my daughter and with my wife.

And so, you know, I've had to be very intentional about setting aside time for family and making sure that when I am home, I'm present and I'm not on my phone or I'm not thinking about work. And so, you know, that's something that I've had to work on and continue to work on.

But, you know, I think ultimately, the goal is to build this business to a point where I have more flexibility and more freedom to be able to spend time with my family. And so, you know, that's what's driving me and that's what's motivating me to keep pushing forward.

Alan: Yeah, I think that's great. And I think, you know, having that long-term vision of where you want to be and what you want your life to look like is really important. Because, you know, in the short term, it's going to be challenging. In the short term, you're going to have to make sacrifices. But if you have that long-term vision of where you're going, it makes it a lot easier to push through those difficult times.

So, you know, one of the things that I always like to ask people is, you know, looking back on your first year, if you could go back and give yourself advice at the beginning, what would you tell yourself?

Drue: I would tell myself to not be afraid to delegate and to hire sooner. I think I tried to do too much myself in the beginning because I wanted to learn everything and I wanted to be hands-on with everything. And, you know, that's great to a certain extent. But there comes a point where you're limiting your growth by trying to do everything yourself.

And so, you know, I think if I could go back, I would have hired key positions sooner and I would have delegated more responsibilities sooner. Because, you know, at the end of the day, you can only do so much yourself. And if you want to scale and if you want to grow, you need to have a team that you can rely on.

And so, you know, that would be my biggest piece of advice is to not be afraid to delegate and to hire the right people to help you grow the business.

Alan: Yeah, that's great advice. I think a lot of business owners struggle with that because they feel like they need to control everything. But, you know, at the end of the day, you can't scale a business by yourself. You need to have a team. And so, you know, learning how to delegate and learning how to trust other people is really important.

So, you know, looking forward, what are your goals for the business? Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

Drue: Yeah, I mean, short-term goals, I want to continue to scale. I want to get to a point where we're doing, you know, three, four, five million in revenue. And then long-term, I'd love to be able to open up multiple territories. I'd love to be able to, you know, potentially open up territories in other cities or, you know, expand our footprint.

And so, you know, that's kind of the long-term vision. But in the short term, it's really just continuing to build out the infrastructure, continuing to hire the right people, continuing to provide great service to our customers, and continuing to grow the business organically.

And so, you know, that's kind of where I'm at right now is just continuing to focus on the fundamentals and making sure that we're doing the right things every single day to continue to grow.

Alan: Yeah, that's great. I love that you have that long-term vision of expanding and opening up multiple territories. I think that's a great goal to have. And, you know, I think if you continue on the trajectory that you're on, you're definitely going to get there.

So, you know, one of the things that I always like to talk about with my clients is this idea of taking time off and stepping away from the business. You know, have you been able to take any time off since you started? And, you know, what does that look like for you?

Drue: Yeah, I mean, I've taken some time off. Not a ton. I mean, I took a week off in the summer to go on vacation with the family. And, you know, that was scary the first time. I mean, you're worried that everything's going to fall apart while you're gone. But, you know, I had good systems in place and I had good people in place. And, you know, everything was fine.

And so, you know, I think the first time you take that day off or you go out and have lunch and you expect things to not burn down, it's pretty scary. But after you do it a couple of times, you get used to it. And certainly that's ultimately what I wanted to achieve from starting this business was having more of that time to be able to spend with the kids and have that flexibility.

But also, I don't see myself ever completely taking my hands off because, one, it's just that's just me personally. And two, that's what my dad has done as well. I've just seen him take a lot of pride in his work. And, you know, the level of expectations—I never want to completely take my hands off of it because this thing can spiral out of control pretty quickly in this industry when you're dealing with trucks and people.

And so always making sure that you show face and continue to keep that culture strong, I feel like that's something I'm always going to enjoy and take a lot of pride in.

Alan: That's awesome. Last question for anyone listening who's considering franchise ownership, what's one piece of advice you'd give them?

Drue: Just do your due diligence. Really, I mean, I certainly had no idea what I was getting myself into the first time. Would you recommend working with a franchise coach to help guide them along the process?

Alan: Yeah.

Drue: I mean, I'd never—I didn't work with one. But I know a lot of people that reach out to me, they were recommended by a franchise coach. And I mean, if they were recommended Pink Zebra, that means they must know a little bit of what they're talking about. And so, yeah, I mean, whether it be listen to a franchise coach or doing your own due diligence and calling—because that's what a lot of people call me now. I'm like, "Hey, you know, what should I be doing now to kind of get ready?" But continue to learn every single thing you can about whether this industry or whatever you want to get into.

Make as many of those prospect calls as you possibly can to those prospective franchise owners that you can get ahold of, because everyone's got a different story. Everybody's got a different relationship with the franchise or anything of that nature. And so make sure you paint yourself as clear of a picture as you possibly can because that first day is going to happen and you don't want to feel blindsided.

You want to be able to kind of expect what's coming and build out a game plan. We never went into a football game without a game plan. And so you shouldn't do the same thing when you're going into business as well. And, you know, having a franchise, that's a heck of a way to also already instill a game plan from day one.

But even if you don't do it yourself or you don't go the franchise route, there's a lot of other people that have done it before you or, if nothing else, Google, ChatGPT. And there's a lot of different information out there, even if you don't want to pick up a phone call itself. That's certainly the best way I would do it. But if you can't get direct answers from someone directly, I can guarantee you ChatGPT has an opinion that's not too far off.

Alan: Yeah. Yeah, doing those validation calls is so important. Speaking with the existing owners, especially, I think getting the range of people in the system—someone who's performing at the highest level, such as yourself, people that are kind of in the middle of the system, people that are on the lower end of the system. Trying to find out why you're so successful and, you know, on the other end, maybe what are you struggling with? What are the reasons why you're not doing as well? I think just painting the clearest picture in your mind that you can before making a commitment, I think is a smart thing.

Drue: Yeah, 100%. And that's something I probably could have done a better job of. But, you know, it is what it is now. And luckily, like I said, we made it work. So, yeah.

Alan: Yeah. Well congratulations, Drue, on being a franchise champion. And I really appreciate you joining me on the show today.

Drue: No, I appreciate the interview and the time you spent with me as well. And so I'm excited to help. And certainly if anybody has any other questions or if you get any questions from this, I'm pretty much an open book and happy to talk business. I'm kind of addicted to business at this point. And whether it be, you know, certainly moving—I know a lot about that. But I just love learning about people's stories and the different things that people are interested in. The whole business world itself, I've just kind of really gravitated to it and it has truly felt like a calling of my own and something I just can never learn enough about. I feel like at this point, so pretty cool what you do.

Alan: That's really cool. That's really cool. How can people get ahold of you?

Drue: They can get ahold of—we are pretty active on social media. That'd be Pink Zebra Moving Tri-State. They can direct message me there. Certainly, if they want to call our office line, they can reach us at 844-MOVE-FUN. Especially if they need a move done. We can do that for them as well. Couch to house, coast to coast. So if there's not a Pink Zebra Moving location near you, I'll be happy to help out in some way, shape, or form.

Alan: Awesome. Awesome. Thank you, Drue. I will put the information in the show notes.

Drue: All right. Sounds good. Yeah. Have a great day.