Meet Nathan Todd

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nathan Todd a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nathan , so great to have you sharing your thoughts and wisdom with our readers and so let’s jump right into one of our favorite topics – empathy. We think a lack of empathy is at the heart of so many issues the world is struggling with and so our hope is to contribute to an environment that fosters the development of empathy. Along those lines, we’d love to hear your thoughts around where your empathy comes from?

Great question, the key things in my life that helped me develop my empathy was my own personal experiences and my faith. I’m no stranger to chaos and brokenness so I feel for my clients that are going through a traumatic experience that has chaos and worldly brokenness all in it. I grew up in a broken home with seven other siblings (which was so fun at times but chaotic for sure), was abused by a step parent repeatedly and other family members every way repeatedly, had siblings in prison and jail, I ran away from home, my only sister whom I shared a birthday and a special bond with was murdered by her ex husband a year or so before starting my business, and I have felt loss of loosing other loved ones along the way. I have many things in life to be grateful for and honestly enjoyed my childhood but those instances mentioned earlier helped me feel a deep sense of empathy for those that are hurting and going through a tough time. Those experiences and my faith in Jesus combined actually made me love life more, made me love others more, made me more empathetic, and fueled my desire to help people. Had I not had a belief that I was called by God to help those that are hurting, to use my pain to help others, and that I was desperately loved by God I don’t think my experiences would have created empathy in me; I think it would have created bitterness and more pain.

Long story short, the conditions that helped me develop my empathy that is so crucial for the biohazard cleaning business where we have to come along side those that are in terrible pain every week is my personal experiences with pain combined with my belief in a God that desperately loves us, has a purpose for every one of us, and sent His son to die for all of the broken people like you and me in the world.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I love owning a hazmat/hoarder/restoration business! It is very difficult to get into for a host of reasons but its so rewarding solving problems for people that are just so overwhelming for them. I get to walk into peoples lives at some of the darkest, toughest, and most traumatic moments and bring them some sort of peace. Obviously I can’t fix what’s lost but I get to bring them peace in their homes when we clean the messes we clean, rebuild the homes after catastrophic events, and help them with as much as we can outside of that as we can. Nobody wants to call a restoration or hazmat company, they are calling because they need us. I get to show them our amazing testimonials of all of our past clients that loved us and are so grateful and give them hope that at least the mess will soon be over. We are also super excited to announce that we partnered with a counseling/therapy group and that partnership allows us to give 1 months free therapy to anybody that needs it. Oftentimes we run into people that could really benefit from therapy but they aren’t sure if it’s right for them, they don’t know who to call, and they are scared of starting. We get to break the ice for them and let them try it free of charge with no obligations so they can see if its right for them or not. I am just so passionate about what we do, we can bring order out of chaos, and we are so blessed to be a part of the healing journey for our clients.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The most important 3 qualities or character traits to have in this business is 1. integrity 2. empathy 3. tenacity.

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. That is so vital because if you don’t have integrity you will be the worst thing your clients could have found. A good name is more valuable than riches. Integrity is absolutely crucial! Our clients are trusting us with so much! Sometimes they have no idea what is in that house and they aren’t able to go in until we finish, how can they trust things won’t go missing they didn’t know existed? How can they trust we won’t cut corners with tedious mold remediation work? How can they trust us that we are treating them fairly? Our name is how they can trust us. We have a history of acting with integrity and we have hundreds of amazing reviews because of it. That lets our clients have faith in us that we will take care of them no matter what we find or how bad the job is. There was one job one of my techs found over $200,000 in cash! Over $10,000 in a broom handle! They immediately called the client and let them know what they found. She was over the moon! We have found Rolex’s, tons of cash, and even a bazooka! That is why you need integrity.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings with another. That is so important, again I can’t say it enough, some of our clients are going through the hardest thing they have ever faced! They need to be heard, empathized with, handled with care at times, and know that you care. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Now there are always some people that are fixated on fixing the problem and nothing else but the majority of our clients are greatly encouraged when we are empathetic to their problems and care about them and not just doing the job, getting paid, and moving on.

Tenacity is being able to grip something firmly. This business can be very challenging, I have a vision with this business and I have to be tenacious about it or I will get fainthearted and quit. There are so many challenges from working with insurance, seeing truly horrifying things, competing with billion dollar competitors, safety issues, and so many other challenges in this industry. It is not for everybody but if you do want to succeed in it don’t go at it half hearted. Be tenacious

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

My dad taught me to “surrender your rights” by living it. He was a hardworking man that did pretty well for himself and one day over the course of a nasty divorce he was wronged countless times, stripped of everything he ever worked for, lost custody of his kids, and was terribly mistreated. He didn’t deserve it, he was swindled by a cunning deceptive lawyer that represented my mom. He desperately wanted to get back with her and didn’t fight her and the lawyer took advantage of that. That turned his life upside down for nearly 18 years before his name was restored. It really shook him for a decade but things slowly turned around for him and by about 2 decades in things really looked better for him. Things came to light that restored his good name, exposed the wrong done to him, and he was able to crawl out of massive debt he accumulated trying to save his marriage and help my mom even though it appears it was a lost cause. He would always tell me when I was younger that I needed to surrender my rights at times and it would frustrate me because I always demanded “Justice!” but that doesn’t always come and you have to be at peace about that. Sometimes you don’t get justice, sometimes people get away with mistreating you or defrauding you. This doesn’t mean you need to be a stone for people to step on but when he would tell me that he was trying to tell me to not get bitter or resentful when things don’t go my way. Bitterness is the poison you drink trying to kill somebody else. It was a way of telling me it was okay. He lived it out for decades and so that was the most impactful thing he ever did for me.

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Image Credits

I took all the photos or they were all taken on my phone at my request so they are mine

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