Episode 20: How Jason Morris Built a Background Screening Empire and Found Adventure Along the Way

What does it take to stay ahead in the background screening industry while juggling a passion for music, fly fishing, and skiing?

Jason Morris has done it all. From shadowing private investigation cases as a kid to launching one of the most recognized background screening companies, he’s built a career on curiosity, adaptability, and bold decision-making. In this episode, I sit down with Jason to unpack his journey—how he went from tracking down cheating spouses to founding Employer Screen IQ, growing it into a powerhouse, and eventually selling it to Sterling. We dive into the evolution of the background screening industry, the role of PBSA, and the biggest compliance challenges today. Plus, we explore Jason’s life outside of screening—his love for live music, fly fishing, and even managing a jam band. It’s an episode packed with industry insights, business wisdom, and a few wild stories. You won’t want to miss it!

Pro Conversation You don’t want to miss!

• From Private Investigator to Background Screening Pioneer
• Building a Business and Navigating Industry Changes
• The Power of PBSA and Industry Collaboration
• Life Beyond Screening: Music, Fishing, and Adventure

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Transcript

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I believe in what we do, why we do it. And the results that we give to our clients, and that's number one. Number two, it's the people. I mean, some of my best friends have come out of this industry. I mean, really. I could pick up the phone, I could travel anywhere in the country and know somebody in a city that I've got a deep relationship with just because of this association in this industry Welcome to Behind the Screens, conversations with background screening pros. I'm Les Rosen, your host, and I'm excited to have you here. On this podcast, we chat with the people who know the background screening world inside and out, executives, industry experts, legal pros, and more. We dive into their personal stories and insights to give you a real look at what's happening behind the scenes. Whether you work in the screening industry or are just curious. Behind the screens bring you the real, unfiltered conversations from the people who make it all happen. Stick around for stories you won't hear anywhere else. And ladies and gentlemen, welcome to yet another action packed exciting episode of behind the screens conversations with background screening pros and it's not often and matter of fact, I haven't done it yet to say we have a guest who needs no introduction. But today I do in fact have a guest that needs no introduction, not that I won't introduce him, but it's a real pleasure to have a longtime friend and one of the, uh, most interesting people and, uh, authoritative people, knowledgeable people in the screening industry, Mr. Jason Morris. Jason, how are you? Thanks for having me, Les. Or, as I should say, Godfather. Oh, well, thanks. All right. All right. Yeah, I appreciate it. Every time I hear that, I laugh. But, uh, I appreciate that. So, Jason, I got to tell you, you are the, I don't know if I should say you're the renaissance man of the screening industry or, remember those old beer commercials, the most interesting man alive? You're certainly the most, you know, from my point of view, the most interesting person in the screening industry. Just looking at LinkedIn, not only, Are you a board member, and we'll maybe touch on that, an expert witness, and a background screen, industry pioneer, and owner of a well known firm, venture capitalist, expert witness, investor in HR services, and a person who's active in the music industry. I didn't even know where to begin with all that. So let's begin with just the general question, what are you currently doing these days? What keeps you busy? What, what do you find interesting? Well, currently, I'm spending the winter in Silverthorne, Colorado. I'm an avid skier. My wife and I, bought a home here in May, and we spent a bunch of time out here this summer, and then we decided we want to spend the entire winter out here. So we're out here all winter. And hoping to move here permanently within the next couple of months, or after the winter time. So, loving it out here. I, spend several hours a day working. I run a firm with Kevin Bachman called iCubed Advisors. and we are a full service consulting firm exclusive to the background screening industry because that's what we know. so that fills. Parts of my day, but as you've known me for over 25 years, I've got ADD, so I can't do one thing. I got to do 50 things, so I do quite a bit. I sit on a lot of boards. I've invested in a couple of companies within the supply chain of the background screening industry, as well as some companies outside the industry, and I just dabble. I love to get stay involved, stay relevant. Transcribed this is an industry that I grew up in and I absolutely love and I keep it as a way to stay involved. so speaking of skiing, maybe you should go to Switzerland one of these days. Yeah, we just got back from Switzerland. we spent a couple of weeks. There was a good friend of mine's 50th birthday. So about 10 of us went out there started out in Amsterdam for a couple of days and then skied in Zermatt, for five or six days. And then went over to St. Moritz. and skied there for several days. We ate, drank, and had fun. It was just a beautiful, beautiful place. Well, that folks, ladies and gentlemen, that falls under the category. Life is tough, but somehow Jason, you've managed to make your way through that and come out on the other side and looking good here today. Well, you're, you're doing all these things. As you mentioned, you've been in the, you know, I've known you for about 25 years. You've been in the industry a long time. take us through your path to get to where you are now. Yeah, it's interesting. So, I grew up in the security and investigative, industry. My father owned a fairly large, security agency, but was also a private investigator. So, I was doing surveillance with my father when I was three years old. I was running up driveways With a leash, asking if they've seen my dog so I can write down, you know, license plate numbers for them. And did that for so long, and it was mostly like cheating husbands and cheating wives, type stuff. And I went to college, at Kent State University, outside of Cleveland. I really thought that I worked for my father for the rest of my life. I started working for him the day after I graduated from college. he had sold the security business, but he really wanted to focus on like finding lost friends and relatives, and adoptions, and still kind of do some of the domestic investigations. So I worked for him for a couple of years. and I learned a lot about, you know, just investigations and You know, working with people and people with different ideas, but ultimately decided that, I wanted to be on my own. Well, I, I just love this image of a, young Jason, um, going up driveway, stalking people at five years old and writing down license plates and, and going undercover at each, uh, whatever. It's, it's crazy. I mean, I was just telling the story because my wife Bridget, you know, when I, we were in college. I mean, I was doing surveillance for my father when I was in college. You know, her and I would go to a bar, we were just dating, and I'd have a camera with me, but we'd be following the person sitting next to her, and I'd go to take a picture of her, but, you know, lean over and take a picture of the, the cheating husband over there, so yeah, I've been in some pretty interesting situations in my career, I left, my father's company in like 1998, or beginning of 1999, and I had the idea that, you know, background screening was going to be, Big. I mean, we started seeing a lot of stories about negligent hiring lawsuits and stuff like that and workplace violence. the internet was kind of new. I started doing some research and lo and behold, 50 or 60 articles from Les Rosen pop up. So I start learning about what's this FCRA and I learned the FCRA and I read all your articles and I think, and I even called you. I called you early on. I said, look, I'm looking to do this. And you're like, look, there's enough business out there for everybody. You taught me a couple of things. I created a website. I incorporated the company and realized very quickly within like probably three to five months that I didn't know anything about running a business. I knew investigations. I knew operational process. I knew nothing about marketing, running a business, or anything else, so I wrote a business plan, and I ran into Nick Fishman and his mother, at a restaurant, that I was having lunch at, and I didn't really know Nick, his brother, his brother Joey, was my best friend in college, and Nick asked me what I was doing, and I'm like, I just started this background check company, and I'm, And I don't know what I'm doing and I want to buy a bunch of vans and do fingerprinting for schools and all this crazy stuff. And he was like, huh, interesting, let me get my dad involved. So, I met with his father, Les, also Les, Fishman. And, he completely rewrote my business plan and said, you need more money. And, uh, this is how we're going to do it. And, brought them on. It was like a three-legged stool. I knew operations, but I knew nothing about running a business. And I knew nothing about marketing, and that was Nick's forte. Les obviously, he'd run and owned lots of businesses. So, we kind of started over again. and launched the business again. you know, it was the late 90s, man. The whole industry just went like this, as you know. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun in the beginning to, you know, the sales team was me and the process was literally picking up the phone every time it rang because it rang off the hook because background screening was just so important early on and people started getting wind of it. That's such a great founder story because that mimics the stories of a number of people where you start and you think you're pretty smart, but you realize running a business is a whole different animal. And so you sort of get like an on the street, on the job MBA, learning all sorts of stuff. And looking back at it and saying, if I knew then what I know now, I'm not sure I would have started it. Right. Yeah, and I was very fortunate to have partners like that and they and they came in not wanting to be just investors. They wanted to be partners and I needed that. And but for the first couple of years, they really kind of left me alone. Nick was working on another business. Less ran a accounting firm, so they really had an arm's length that they were there for me whenever I needed it. And when it when we first started getting the opportunity to do presentations, less would come with me to all of them because I looked like I was 15 years old. You know, walking into Fortune 500 companies and I sounded like I was 15 years old with zero experience. So, you know, having that early, early on was just super important and right, part of our success. that's fantastic. And I think you said the name of the firm, but, Employer Screen IQ. well, we started out as background information services. Yeah. And, uh, in 2007 we got into a little legal battle with another company that was much smaller, uh, but with the same name, and decided that it was a good opportunity to rebrand and we rebranded as Employee Screen iq, I great, okay. And then you, you grew and grew and the rest is history. Angela Preston joined you and, uh, among others and, you guys, grew and grew and eventually you were, uh, The subject of an acquisition. Yeah. And an, you know, Angela's a great, segue. probably one of the, I think, proudest things that I would say I've accomplished are the biggest successes I've had in business. Um, you know, not all of them handpicked by me by any means, but, you know, work with them and some of them were handpicked by me, but like some of them are killing it in the industry right now. Angela is one of them. we sold to Sterling in 2015 and Angela has just risen through that organization. but Kevin Bachman is a industry stalwart. Andrew Cashman, one of our heads of public records is killing it in the industry right now. I've got a couple people that, uh, Zach, uh, Zach Martin started a CRA with another guy that worked for me, John Sferry. So I'm really, really proud of what has happened with some of these people in the industry and, and how they've grown and how they've helped the industry grow. That's fantastic. you grew in, uh, employment screening, became an employment screener at CUE out of, out of nothing, out of thin air. you know, out of, out of your energy and your enthusiasm and, and, all right. Not, not knowing any better than, oh, I'll start a background firm. How hard can that be? Right? Right. I mean, it was, it was almost as hard as, as starting, uh, any PBS and that was, you know, I credit, the early, early days of any PBS or slash PBS a, to our company's success as well. And I can't wait to talk about that with you because we've got so much history there. It's just, it's, it's amazing. So yeah, we'll get, we'll, I'll certainly get to that. I recall you, uh, worked with Sterling. I was with Sterling for about 16 months. never intended on leaving. but I had never worked for anybody in my life. So that part was, difficult. but it was great because I learned a whole new skill set. one thing about Sterling is they hired incredible people. incredibly smart people. because of the relationships that I had had and cultivated in the industry they had me as part of the M& A team and I learned this whole new skill set of mergers and acquisitions and Billy Goldstein who was running M& A over there taught me everything that I know about that and it's helped me Tremendously as I had left Sterling and started working on advisory stuff Just created that whole new skill set for myself I completely get that. I mean, when I was a young, uh, attorney, I worked for somebody, and then I was a DA, I worked for somebody, and I realized I can't work for anybody either. And, uh, that's how I ended up starting a firm. I just couldn't, uh, it just, you just can't, you know, some people just can't do it. Yeah, I'm like, Yeah. never had anybody tell me what to right. All right. Well, other than my wife, I feel the same way, but, uh, all right. All right. Oh, that's great. So you, so you learned a brand new set and then after that, uh, you went and, uh, that's when the consulting, uh, part of your business and expert witness and so forth really took off. I tried retiring. Actually, I tried just not working. Yeah. that lasted about three or four months. I figured I golf gets cold in Cleveland after, uh, after November. So that, that one did not go very long. I did some, some stuff, I still do some stuff in the music business, but that kind of launched me into doing stuff, which was my real passion, which was music. Um, and that's filled up some time. But then I started getting calls from CRAs and they're like, Hey, can you help with this? Can you hire me as CEO? Or can you, you know, build a sales team? And I'm like, I don't really know how to do recruiting, but I'll learn it. And I did. And it's like, I'm a matchmaker. I just, I help friends right. Appreciate it. with friends and it's just incredibly fulfilling. It's fantastic and it is taken off from there and, you and Kevin and, uh, and sometimes Nick or whoever and, doing, uh, you know, some, really marvelous, seminars for the industry and on different topics and Bianca's with you now. Yeah, we brought Bianca on and we just brought on and we haven't announced it yet, but Andy Hellman is joining us or joined us. And so that we can offer like, you know, we talk a lot about, building your business and the two ways to build your business are sales and adding product and international is a product that most companies just don't know how to do. And now we have Andy to teach our clients how to do that. So yeah. an excellent addition. That's fantastic. Yeah, so we're going to keep adding people and keep adding skill sets to help, everybody in the CRA space grow their businesses. So, let me ask you a question that, might be instructive. looking back, what's a lesson that you learned early, that would be worth sharing with, with the listening audience? be afraid to talk to your competition. I mean, we all went to that conference, the Brownstein conference for several years before, any PBS was formed. And I remember sitting with you and Sankey and a couple other guys and we're like, man, we got to do something here because it's going to be tough. without it and, those early days of just being able to reach out and talk to competition, which again, everybody wasn't for, even my partners at a certain point were like, you know, let's be careful here. but we all realized that the industry was just taking off so quickly that, you know, we were better off together than separately. it's actually a lesson that I've brought to, some people I work with in the music business, like, don't be afraid to go to your competitors and just collaborate. don't collude, you know, no collusion, but collaborate right. talk about the future of the industry and how we can all, succeed together. Yeah, because in reality there's really no secret sauce. We all put our pants on basically the same way. I mean, the pants may look different or might be, you know, different processes. But at the end of the day, there isn't a whole lot new under the sun that, not everyone has access, everyone has access to it. it's all out there. It's all known. there's not much secret sauce left. Right. There was then though. you know how cool it was in the early days for you and I and others to sit down and be like, you know, how do you do an employment verification? What's the best way to do an education? Like none of us really knew. And then we all found out that we were doing it the same way without even talking to each other. Um, and the manual processes we had in place, and the little, the mailboxes that we had for the evolution of the background track, and all the issues that we had, and sometimes we shared in those issues, like, I remember, it was probably 2000, it was before any PBS, IAX, our MVR provider, shut us all off overnight. We all came in in the morning to run our MVRs and had no access. And I think we all called Sankey at that point, and then we all got on a conference call, and we figured out how to combat that problem. What are the industries that happen in? I mean, the fact that we could collaborate together Right. Yeah. just amazing. Yeah, I don't realize that, you know, that was a single source of failure. I mean, years ago And, uh, I can't remember the name of the company now. But overnight, boom. They just turned off every background firm. And, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. uh. I, uh, exactly. That's what it was. Okay. Yeah, right. And, uh, boom. No, no, no driving records for anybody. And, uh, but we, you know, everyone figured it out. We adapted. yeah, I remember going to Baton Rouge and talking to a provider and, we all did something. it all worked out. we may have covered this, but you know, looking back over your career in the background industry, and your career isn't over because you're still, still in the midst of it. what do you like most about it? What draws you to it? What's your favorite thing? What, gets you up in the morning? I believe in what we do. not only because I ran a business and your people are one of your biggest assets and can be one of your biggest liabilities. I believe in what we do, why we do it. And the results that we give to our clients, and that's number one. Number two, it's the people. I mean, some of my best friends have come out of this industry. I mean, really. I could pick up the phone, I could travel anywhere in the country and know somebody in a city that I've got a deep relationship with just because of this association in this industry. That's great. So one of the things we do, and we don't want to spend too much time on this, because we can spend hours, we play Changes and Challenges. So, quick, off the top of your head, limit it just to one or two. Biggest changes you've seen, biggest challenges you've seen, in the screening industry. So the biggest changes I think would be automation, and I'm sure I know that that's been discussed on several podcasts that you've done, but you know, it's been really impactful if you look at all the things that we would just throw people at over the years, was the solution then. technology has gotten so good and so accurate in some areas that it's replaced people with more, concise and more accurate methods of doing things. and I think the companies that have embraced that properly, have really, really succeeded. the biggest challenges, I would say, would be privacy, you know, identity, and removal Of records, and identifiers from public records has been a, huge challenge. The other equally, I think equally as impactful challenge would be the work number. And not, to really slam them, but, you know, it's a really important service to figure out if somebody has the skill set or has the history in their employment, that they say they do. And the barriers that have come up in the last several years and how expensive that service has gotten. Has really tied the hands of background screeners. Yeah, no, I, I, you've talked about that some of the webinars and, uh, but I think like everything eventually, you know, like water seeks its own level, eventually, eventually things solve itself. And so. I know you're an investor and advisor on a couple of companies that are working on that, other people working on it, so. It's an interesting take. So in looking back, before we get to, we talk about PBSA and then we talk about life outside of screening, comes to mind, top of mind as an accomplishment or achievement that really brings a smile to your face as you're, uh, saying, oh gosh, damn, that was good. Are we talking screening or non screening? So, let's start with screening and then we'll do non screening. I think screening, I think it would be the people. I think it would be the people that rose through our organization and have just killed it in life, uh, since then. So proud of some of those people, including, my partner, Nick, I mean, Nick's done some unbelievable things since employees screen IQ is chief marketing officer over at informed data. He is the best marketer in the industry. As far as I'm concerned. don't tell him I said that. Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean. Yeah, but again, it's, really the people and then the obvious, you know, the obvious eventual exit, of the business, which was, you know, is ultimately, the goal of every, uh, founder. and I would say non screening aside from my family and my kids who, my kids are killing it. My oldest daughter's in her first year of law school in Denver. And my, I, I, Congratulations. Wow. you, And my youngest is a sophomore at Boulder and she's going to go into business of some sort when she graduates. So, aside from that, I would say, I don't know, I hit a, are in college. Okay. Oh, that's great. Yeah, one's law school, one's college. I would say, I hit a hole in one about four years ago and I, I did a marathon about 10 years ago. Those were personal accomplishments that, mean a lot to me, but I'm not done. I set goals for myself all the time and, there's always things that I want to accomplish and be able to do in my life. And I'm trying to chip away at those as, quickly as I can. So do you have a bucket list? You look at your bucket list every January and go, okay, what am I not got this year? Yeah. in my head. I mean, last year it was, you know, I did this, I did this unbelievable trip to Yellowstone. Um, it was a, it was a six day, or six, six day, five night horseback riding, fly fishing trip. In the middle of nowhere, you know, we talked earlier about, before the podcast about, needing to be near medical facilities were days away from medical facilities. I mean, we were an SOS tap on a satellite phone from a helicopter coming, being able to, to do that, we had bears come like grizzly bears come into our camp, like. I'm a very anxious person, but being able to like out of contact and, living through the elements for that long, uh, was a huge accomplishment for me. that's fantastic. so it was, next year is going to be, but this, that, that's what it was last year. So that was like right out of the TV series Yellowstone, man. you were a non urban cowboy. it was. I know I grew up horseback riding. My father was a horseman. I grew up western riding, you know, so I've done it my whole life and we've done some stuff with the kids over the years, but just being out there on horseback in the elements was just unbelievable. So that's the second thing I didn't know. All these years I've known you, I didn't know that you were a stalker at a young age. Or a private investigator. And that you were a horse guy. I did not know that. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, and and as we, finalize our life out here in Colorado, buying some horses and getting back into that and more involved in that is something Right. I, look to do. So we've mentioned PBSA, and obviously we've both been involved. you and Mary Ette were the, chairs, co-chairs of year number two. And, you were involved in, the early meetings. what would you say about PBSA and the value to the industry and to the individual members? I would say that I attribute any PBS, PBSA to a lot of my not only personal success, but our business's success. being able to first operationally, just bounce things off of each other and be able to build our businesses in an efficient manner together was, was a huge part of our success. But. Personally, you know, being on the board and I'd, I'd done board work before that. I've done a lot after that, but, learning how to work with people, these were 12 individual business owners, that all had somewhat different ideas, but we came together. We worked our asses off to get this thing started. I mean, how many times we fly into, uh, DC or Chicago and meet in a hotel over a weekend just to get an accreditation point finalized or what. I mean, it was constant. It was our own expense too. And it was, it was really, I still call it somewhat my baby. Like the fact that we did this so long ago and how big it's become since then, really extraordinary. And I remember you telling me like, Early on, you're like, you know, we'll know that this thing is successful when it's self sustaining and it's got its own executive staff and we're not relying on outside people. And that happened. Right. something that we should all be really, really proud of. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, when it first started, remember, there was the, uh, uh, the steering committee, and then there was sort of the extended committee that you were part of when we got together in Washington or whatever, and we had, all of 14, 000. And since there was no board, I, I basically just made, Just made the decisions, right? during that kind of tenuous period, that gray period, where we weren't official, but we were about to, and it all depended on trust, trust and cooperation. And it worked. And then we had our first board, and then it went from there. those were fun times when we were, we had a blank slate. we did. And, and the people, I mean, the people that we were in that room together, I mean, me, you. Mike Sankey, who I just absolutely adore and miss so much, Katherine Aldrich, Larry Henry, and Katherine from Choice Point, I can't remember her last name, Noelle, Fred, Tammy Cohen, like, Barry Nadell, like, we all hardly knew each other, right? And, look what we did. Right, yeah, yeah, exactly. No, I remember that very, after we had the, uh, the elections, we actually had elected board, and we all met at the, uh, Hyatt in Dallas, and that was when it officially kicked off, and the rest is history. and yeah. I think you have probably, I don't know if you've been to RBP, uh, Every one of them. Okay, oh, that's Well, I've been to every one of them, but the first one that we had after COVID, if you remember, I checked into the hotel in Anaheim the next morning. I felt like crap. I got a COVID test. I had COVID and I was locked in my room in Anaheim for 10 freaking days after the conference. Even I was still there, but it was great because, All my best friends were there. I got soup brought up to me and people came up and like peeked at me through the whole, you know, the peep hole. And so I've been to every one of them. One of them, I didn't actually get to go to anything. and that's the, uh, the same hotel that, people, everyone's going back to, I think for the, uh, conference, uh, this year, 2025 back to, the Marriott across the street from, Disneyland. Yep. that's, that's fantastic. And then after you, you and Mary were co chair, then you were, former chairs or whatever they're called. And from there you still stay involved in a bunch of things, right? Yeah, I stayed involved on the board. And then after the board, I got involved on the BSEC. So I was on, I was chairman of the BSEC, I think for two terms. And that's the accreditation, um, whatever that stands for, the accreditation initials, right? Yeah, the, uh, background screening credentialing council that I mean that really if it wasn't for Noel and Noel Harling and Mike Coffey, that thing would have never happened. I was chair for a couple of years, but that was meaningless compared to the work that those guys and those committees did to put that thing together. That was a bear. I think we launched it when I was co chair of any PBS, with Mary, I think the first five companies got accredited under us or right after us. I can't remember exactly the timing, but man, the fact that we got that thing launched, was pretty unbelievable. And I've, I've still got all my notes and, uh, all my files from way back then. And you should see some of the accreditation standards we wanted to put out there, Ha ha ha ha ha ha. ha. No, that was pretty amazing. I remember when I, called the first meeting to order and I, you gave the first speech and made accreditation a challenge for the industry. I said, we got to do it. You know, either you regulate yourself or everyone will do it for you. And so it worked out. Yeah, totally. might shock some people, but there is life outside of background screening. There it is. I don't want people to fall out of their chairs, but yeah, that's all right. So, so tell us what you do when you're not background screening. We heard about a little bit of it, you know, that you're now in, Colorado and you're skiing, but, what do you do outside when you're not, involved in this industry? So, aside from my hobbies, you know, skiing and yoga and, being outside and golf, I'm a passionate live music guy. Uh, like Heidi Patty. I see probably 50 shows a year, a couple of festivals a year. And I've gotten to know a lot of great musicians that have become dear friends of mine. And one of the things I wanted to do early on was learn the business. So, uh, I started managing a band called Eminence Ensemble about five or six years ago to really learn the business and meet the people and do what I'm really good at, which is meeting people and networking and making friends. So did that mission accomplished. I invested in some companies in the music space, sat on some boards there. There were startups that one of them is not around anymore. and figured I would still dabble and do some things in music. And about a year ago, I got a call from one of the agents that I've become really good friends with. And he's like, look, there's a band in Denver. They're really starting to pop. Would you work with them? And I said, I'm not really looking to do day to day management of a band, but on the strategy side, I would love to work with them. So, I started working with a band called Squeaky Feet, out of Denver about a year ago. These guys are killing it. three of three to the five went to Berklee School of Music. Incredibly talented musicians. they're nationally touring now. They are being invited to several festivals this summer. and their music is incredible. All right, so that's, you heard it here folks, it's called, tell it again, Squeaky Feet. Squeaky Feet, they are a progressive rock jam band. they have a 30 minute song, so brace yourself. Wow! it is multi layered. it is just phenomenal improv that they're able to bring to the table and, it's rare that you see talent like this on stage. if someone wants to find out more about them, is there a website, or are they on YouTube, or how do you, how do you, Okay. they're on YouTube. they've got the websites up there. They're, we're announcing some more tour dates coming up here soon. yeah, they're, they're killing it. They're absolutely killing it. Oh, that's fantastic! All right, Squeaky Feet. All right, who would have Ha ha ha. ha. right. Well, that must be fun, so you're, backstage, and all the energy, and everything going on, it sounds fun, all right, of fun. It's a lot of fun and I'm, you know, and I'm able to bring some of the things that I've learned in business over the last 25 years to help grow another business, which is the band. So, you know, hopefully there'll be big things to come. So you're still with them now and, is that your main band you're working with or working with others or I still work with, I still work with Eminence Ensemble. but Squeaky Feet, they're really starting to pop. So it's taking, more of my time. yeah, but again, I like to be busy a lot and doing different things. So I can focus on the background screening stuff in the morning and the, band stuff in the afternoons and weekends and all this stuff in between when I can. So what's your favorite music festival, what would you recommend if people can only do a couple, where would you recommend they go? Well, New Orleans Jazz Fest is unbelievable. I've only gone once. We're going this year. I went last year and we said we'd never miss it again. And it's the kind of festival that it takes place between noon and seven in New Orleans. But that's not what you really go there for. It's from eight o'clock until six o'clock in the morning. Every venue in New Orleans is packed with your favorite musicians from your favorite bands collaborating with each other, jamming. Putting side projects together and you've never seen anything like it. It's unreal. Absolutely unreal. So, they're out there like in Frenchman's Quarters after the thing is over and Bourbon Street or wherever they go and, uh, Yeah. there's probably like 30 music venues in New Orleans. So, I mean, you'll, you'll, you'll go to a show and see Umphreys McGee sitting in with, a couple of jazz players or, or whatever, or you might see two guys from, you know, one band sitting with three guys from another band and form those other little band they'll play all night long. Wow. Oh, that's fantastic. incredible. So, I mean, that takes place on the riverfront right near the Westin Hotel and that, River Park area. And, uh, if I remember. takes place at the racetrack. Oh, right. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking I was there in New Orleans for another jazz festival. They had something there, but the big one there, right? Oh, that's, that's fantastic. Yeah, it's great. apart from that, you've also regaled me in the past with stories about, fishing and hunting at, what was the covered bridge, place. Well, tell us about that. I mean, that's, uh, that's pretty unusual. Yeah, so some of my I've been an avid fly fisherman for 20 plus years. It's just one of those things that I just love being outside and on the river. about Two years ago, a bunch of us that golfed together, we all used the same fishing guide in Cleveland and, he approached us that a piece of land had come up east of Cleveland. A little footnote is, some of the best fly fishing in the world is off of Lake Erie, because, you know, these, these steelhead trout that are enormous, they migrate up the rivers, off of Lake Erie. And they're bigger in that part of the world than anywhere else in the world. So we, what we have was a great fishing experience, but we didn't have in Cleveland or anywhere near Cleveland within 100 miles of Cleveland was a lodge experience. So when I travel to Alaska or Colorado or Montana to go fly fishing, you stay in these amazing lodges and your meals are prepped for you and you've got a glass of scotch waiting for you when you come off the water. We basically replicated that in Cleveland. and we've now bought, I think we've got 250 acres. We've got a couple of miles of private water. We've got two lodges, full service chefs. it's not making any money, but it's a really fun place to go. So it's a passion project that we all put together and. And, uh, it's called Cover Bridge Outfitters and Lodge. We do hunting, we do fishing, we do lake area fishing, river fishing twice a year for, for the steelhead. And, uh, it truly is one of the, really a magical experience when you go out there. It's a great client, it's a great client, thing, a great client event, too. And, and, and fish is on the menu every night at least. Well, this is catch and release. We actually release the fish after we catch them. Um, uh, but we do serve, you know, walleye that we catch off Lake Erie and other things that we, uh, that we have at the, you know, some of the guys that hunt, for deer and, birds that we serve as well. Oh, that's fantastic. So it's, uh, people want to find out that it's called covered bridges. What again? Covered Bridge Outfitter and Lodge in Conneaut, Ohio. Our website is CBOLodge, I think, dot com. and we've had several people from the industry out there. We do, a lot of what we do is big client groups, like people trying to, entertain clients. They'll bring out five or six clients and for two or three Right. And we have them either on the water or in the fields every day. And, I think we have 100 percent return customers. Like, it's, it's Oh, that's fantastic. Wow. it's awesome. between fly fishing and skiing and golfing and concerts and, alright, it's hard to imagine how much free time you have. alright. Alright. Alright. No, I'm with you on that. It's hard to sit still. So, alright. Well, listen, time to play a game we call Fun Facts. Jason Morris, tell us something about yourself that people may not know or realize that, is kind of, fun or interesting or, or unusual. Huh, interesting. So, let me think about that. Well, I think one thing would be that, uh, not a lot of people know that I'm a twin. Technically. It's not a sad thing. My mother never even knew. But when I was born, there was actually another fetus in there that was a couple months mature. And it actually says twin on my birth certificate. So a lot of people don't know that about me. I think the second thing would be, I don't play an instrument. Uh, as, as in the music as I am, I, I can't carry a tune. I can't play anything. So I'm, I'm so in awe of these people that can. And so, I'm just so enthralled with them. Yeah, you know, I was going to ask you that. I said, no, I don't know the answer to that question. I didn't want to, uh, you know, ask you something. And, uh, but I was wondering about that, you know, and here, I mean, you're, you're I own guitars. Oh, that is so funny. I, I, I'm the opposite. I can read music. I played trumpet in high school, but, not nearly have the interest in music you do. So that's so bizarre. I think you alluded to it, but, what's next for you? More of the same. More of the same. I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing. I'll always be an evangelist for this industry. I will always be involved in this industry. and I would love to continue to see this industry grow. And, you know, one other thing I wanted to say is less that I attribute a lot of the success that I had to you. early on, I, I would not, never have been able to start the business without you and the knowledge that you were able to give me. I've, I use your. Safe Hiring Manual in a lot of my expert witness, work. I quote it all the time. And I, I really can't tell you, uh, and express to you how much you've meant to me in my career, and the mentoring that you've, given to me. yeah, Jason, I appreciate that. Very nice. I do appreciate that. So, so speaking of mentoring and all the mentoring that you've done. And the people you've worked with and nurtured, I should say, and continue to, what's your advice for people that are, you know, just entering the profession or may have been in it, may be in it now deciding whether they have a future or how to, optimize their future and, and really take off and how to increase their value. what lessons have you learned that you'd want to pass on or what would be your advice? Well, to individuals, I would say, in this industry, get involved in PBSA. you can't find a better way to learn and to collaborate with people. the opportunities that PBSA presents are endless, but you have to get involved in order to succeed with that. I would say for, businesses out there, think outside the box. I know it's cliche, but if we're not innovating, we're going to die. And we've got a lot of people coming in this industry from outside the industry that have backgrounds. In technology, in automation, and they're thinking about this a lot differently than we did. The way we do things today, the way the larger CRAs do things today, is a 25 to 30 year old process. And people are starting to think differently now, and I think we've got to think differently with them. you know, just because somebody comes out with a new way of doing things, the old way of, Oh, that's not compliant, or you can't do it that way because it's never worked before, can't do that. You've got to Yeah, right. to do things better and more efficiently and differently. So, you know, adding product and adding innovation to your, firm is, is going to be paramount to your success. You know, with the, industry consolidation and, uh, firms being bought up, that people who used to go to PBSA are no longer, they no longer get a time off or their, their firm doesn't, uh, pay for it. And I, I've been telling people, the, the advice I've been giving is that even if your firm won't pay for it or you have to buy your own tickets, you have to take PTO, you have to pay the admission price, there's no further way to better your career. take your career into your own hands and control your own destiny and just get your, your own butt to PBSA, even if you're not reimbursed. What do you think I couldn't agree more. I've been trying to push PBSA over the years and it's hard because they're always drinking from a fire hose. But, you know, making these things available online to people that can't travel for 25 or whatever to, to sit in on a, on a session on, on compliance. I think we're missing the boat there, and I think that, that would add a lot. It's not to deter people from actually coming, because we could, you know, the association could say, hey, we're not televising this until we reach 500 people that have paid to attend or something, but once we reach those numbers, I think, you know, spreading that out to the broader audience is going to benefit Yeah. the road. Yeah, that's true. But, and I think there's also an advantage, however, even, even a lot of PBSA, I, I think is, not even the sessions, you know, it's just the, uh, the meeting people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and going on the vendor floor and, uh, getting the free candy and, uh, Yeah. the stuff they give out. Well, Jason, this has been a real great session. I had a number of things I hear. I thought I knew you had known you for a long time. And it's like, you're blowing me away with some of the things you've, uh, You've told us about it. I just had no idea. I, I, I introduced you as, uh, you know, the one of the most interesting guys in the screening industry. And I think you proved me right. So, this has been fascinating. So, for those of those, people listening, if they want to get in touch with you, what's the best way? Your LinkedIn page You can, You can, get me on LinkedIn. You can email me at jmorris at iCubedadvisors. com. I'm on all social media. I'm easy to get a hold of and I'm really easy to find. All right. And, and willing to talk to people. And we want to talk to everybody. I mean, honestly, I was just telling my wife yesterday, like, like I would say 25 percent of my day, of my work day, is just having conversations with people. Right. just having conversations with people. I talked to Dean Karras and, Katie Kalt for like an hour today just to talk to them. Right. I just to catch up with people. I do that every single day. Yep. So with all that, do you have any closing thoughts you want to share? The floor is yours. no closing thoughts. Just, you know, if you see me at a conference, at the mid year, at the annual, you know, grab me. Let's talk. I love meeting people. I love knowing people. I love knowing the owners. I love helping people. in some ways I'm the worst consultant in the world because half the time I don't charge people. I just like to have conversations with them. Um, so, you know, that's it. You know, use me. Use me and abuse me. you don't have to be an owner to talk to you. If you're at, at a PVSA conference and you're, you're in production or compliance for sales, you love those conversations too, right? I mean, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So if you see Jason at a conference, don't be afraid of, uh, taking up his time and, bring him his favorite beverage, which is what, what would be your favorite beverage? Uh, either a scotch or a gin martini. All right. We'll walk up to Jason with a scotch or gin martini and you'll get thousands of dollars worth of free consulting for the cost of a drink. It's great. Well, this is great folks. Listen, this has been a just a fantastic conversation and Jason, I thank you for taking the time out to join us today. And, uh, and sharing your thoughts and a lot of great stories and, uh, and things that, uh, I don't think, that I've ever heard before. So folks, you heard it here first. All right. So, well, ladies and gentlemen, thank you again. This has been another great episode of Behind the Screens and a special thanks to our special guest, uh, Mr. Jason Morris. Jason, thanks again. Thank you, Les. Talk to you later. All right, that was yet another wonderful conversation with a background screening pro. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an update. And hey, if you got a moment, we'd love for you to leave us a review. It really helps get the word out. For more info, or to catch up on past episodes, or to make suggestions, or to suggest possible future guests, head over to our website. Once again, this is your host, Les Rosen, and it's been a pleasure to bring you another episode. See you on the next episode. Thanks.