Join Doug as he interviews Christopher Long, an entrepreneur who used a personal challenge to create an international powerhouse for secure, large-scale storage solutions. Chris shares his story of grit and vision, from carpenter to multimillionaire, revealing how he built Longyards Storage. He gives his old school advice on hard work, goal setting and persistence, explaining how he found financial freedom and is now expanding his business model across the US through strategic partnerships.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Longyards solves a market gap by providing month-to-month rental of fenced outdoor storage spaces for contractors, landscapers and businesses who need flexible storage without long-term leases.
• Chris started with handwritten goals beside his mirror, focusing first on paying off debt, then building credit and buying property, eventually evolving to using the Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS) to manage company wide objectives.
• The industrial outside storage market is gaining institutional recognition, with major investors like JP Morgan entering the space, creating significant growth opportunities.
• Chris attributes his success to his background and his grandfather's influence, emphasising relentless hard work, knocking on doors and solving problems through persistence rather than shortcuts.
• After losing everything in his contracting business, Chris rebuilt and became financially free within three years by applying the lessons he'd learned and working smarter with fewer employees.
• Longyards is expanding through partnerships with high income earners who have business or real estate experience, where Longyards provides expertise while partners bring local knowledge and financing capabilities.
• Chris measures success not just by growth but by brand recognition, his goal is to make Longyards the household name people think of when they need to rent outdoor storage space.
• For effective goal setting, Chris recommends focusing on getting 1% better daily rather than attempting dramatic changes, breaking big goals into small achievable steps that accumulate over time.

BEST MOMENTS

"My goal was to become financially free and I used storage yards to achieve that... basically it's a cash cow. It brings in over 40k a month. And that allowed just to basically change my life.”

"The easier that you push, the more you push that easy button later on, the harder life gets and I was pushing that hard button at the beginning and now my life is getting easier."

"Even though I had hard conversations and hard things to do, I had those hard conversations with people when I wasn't getting paid... I paid everybody. I kept my word. I did good by everybody around me, and I was transparent."

"Don't try to get the gold, get a bunch of pieces of silver and get better at collecting a bunch of pieces of silver, and then it turns into gold."

"As the company evolves and my skillset evolves as a CEO and a founder with a big mission, these set of goals have evolved to what's called EOS. And I'm not sure if you've heard of EOS. Maybe it's more of a western culture term, but it's what's referred to as the entrepreneur operating system."

 

ABOUT THE GUEST

longyards.com

linkedin.com/in/chris-long-152b3988

VALUABLE RESOURCES

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Goals Do Come True is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3phcy6Z

Think Simple, Win Big is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Think-Simple-Win-Big-Business/

Enjoy, and come back for the latest podcast each Wednesday. Thank you for listening.